The Dark Scepter
by Fenris5000
Summary: Matt, TK, Tai and the rest of the season 01 gang head back to the Digiworld. Will they be able to figure out what happened to Kari?
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer:  We do not own Digimon or Mahjongg.

The Dark Scepter—Chapter One 

**By Fenris5000—Angelica**

Izzy sat at his desk click clacking away at his computer.  This school project was not due for another three weeks, but he was just so excited about it that he couldn't wait.

"Hey Izzy." Tai said from his perch on Izzy's bed.  "How much longer till they get back?" He was twirling his soccer ball on his finger, or at least trying to.  It kept falling off.  "I wonder if Matt's still coming.  Do you think he forgot?"

The red haired boy shook his head.  "Of course I don't think he forgot.  He phoned a while ago before you got here and said his band practice might go a bit over schedule." Izzy turned back to his computer.  "And as for TK, Davis, Yolei and Kari, they should be back any time now." He glanced at his homemade android clock on the wall above his bed.  "They've only been gone for two hours."

Tai gave up with the soccer ball and placed it on the floor.  "I hate waiting.  I should have gone with them, then at least I wouldn't be sitting here doing nothing but waiting." He looked up at his friend's computer.  "Hey, what are you working on, anyway?"

Izzy shrugged.  "It's a project for my advanced electronics class.  I won't bore you with the details…"

"Meaning I won't understand anything you'd say anyway." Tai interpreted with a sigh.  Izzy was a nice guy, one of Tai's best friends actually, but he sure did have some complicated interests.

Izzy turned back to his keyboard and started typing again.  Tai rolled his eyes and continued to sit there being bored.

"Maybe I should call Matt and see if he's on his way yet." Tai said, pulling at a thread on Izzy's green bedspread.

"Tai, if you're that bored, why don't you play a game or something." Izzy suggested.  "I do have Mahjongg on my laptop."

The big-haired brunette groaned loudly.  "Izzy, do I look like I want to play Mahjongg?  Even if I wanted to play a game it sure wouldn't be Mahjongg.  I haven't ever won that one." He flopped onto his back.  "After playing that stupid game, all I see are tiles every time I shut my eyes."

"Fine, it was just a suggestion, Tai." Izzy said irritably.  "Why don't you have a nap then."

Taichi Kamiya groaned even louder.  "I don't want a nap." He pouted.  "I want Matt to hurry up and get here."

Izzy sighed.  "Why do you want Matt to get here so badly?  It isn't like he can get TK and the others back any sooner."

Tai rolled over.  "Yeah, but then there would be two of us bored.  We would outnumber you and force you to find some way to entertain us."

Knock.  Knock.

"Come in." Izzy said.  The door opened and Matt Ishida slipped in panting hard.  His black shirt was damp with sweat and slightly askew, and his hair's state was not much better.

"Wow!  I never thought I would use the words _Matt _and _disheveled _in the same sentence." Tai drawled from his recumbent position on the bed.  "What happened to you, Dude?"

Izzy turned back to his computer screen.  "Yeah, you're not that late.  You didn't have to run the whole way you know, though I'm glad you did.  Tai is driving me nuts."

"Ha, ha.  Very funny." Tai said, not laughing.  He watched Matt collapse beside him onto the bed and make a sour face.  "Come on Ishida, spill it, or I'll set Izzy's pet tarantula loose."

Matt's eyes widened in horror.  "I thought your mom was donating Squiggles to the zoo." He glared over at Izzy.

"She did." Izzy said simply.  "Tai is just trying to drive you nuts now."

"Oh." Matt said, sitting up and raking his fingers through his hair.  "Please don't, my sanity is already hanging by just a thread as it is." He readjusted his shirt with a grimace.  "We had a little audience during rehearsal."

"So?" Tai prodded.

"They were not invited."

"And?"

"Jun Motomiya."

Tai gulped.  "My deepest sympathies, Dude.  Actually, you look like this encounter of the Jun-kind was rather light.  I don't see any scratches, tears or hair loss this time."

Matt glared at his best friend.  "I think I set a world record for the one mile sprint.  My legs feel like licorice right now, okay?"

"Okay, okay.  Sheesh Dude, don't lose your cool."

Izzy hit his mouse button one last time and turned with a pleased smirk.  "There.  Done."

"Just in time too." Tai said, sitting up with alacrity.  "The Digiport's opening.  The others are coming back." He got off the bed and started dancing around excitedly, only to trip over his beloved soccer ball and crash to the floor face first.

Matt let out a laugh.  "Looking for something, Tai?"

"Owie." Tai moaned, getting up.  "Hey, did I get a rug burn on my chin?"

Matt rolled his eyes.  "No.  Now will you please sit down and wait for the others nice and calmly like Izzy and me?"

Tai pouted, sitting down.  "You're no fun at all, you know that, Matt?"

Matt did not reply as a bright light accompanied by a humming sound erupted from the Digiport program running on Izzy's PC on his desk.  A jumble of arms, legs and assorted colorful little balls with faces came tumbling through, making enough noise to wake the dead, or bring Izzy's mother running.

"Kari!" TK yelled, trying to untangle himself from Yolei's ferocious grip.  "Let go!  I have to go back!"

Matt, Tai and Izzy looked at each other in apprehension.  One of the digidestined did not make it back?

Tai grabbed Davis Motomiya, the team leader, by the collar and lifted him out of the din.  "Where's my sister, Davis?"

Davis turned bright puce.  "Easy Tai, don't you worry about a thing.  TM and me, we're going back right now to get her, see?" He limped towards TK and gave him a hand.  "Hey, let go of him Yolei, we've gotta go back and save Kari."

Yolei continued her hold on TK's arm with her left hand.  Her right arm hung awkwardly by her side, her wrist was a deepening eggplant color and swollen to twice it's normal size.  "No, you can't go back there guys, not until we fill everyone in on what's going on in the Digiworld."

"Let go, Yolei." TK warned her through gritted teeth.  "Just get out of my way."

Matt frowned.  "That's enough TK.  We're all worried about Kari, but there's no call for being rude to your friends." He stepped between TK and the digiport.

TK glared up at his very calm older brother.  "We don't have time for this Matt." He shook himself out of Yolei's death grip and continued in a voice that sent tingles down Matt's spine.  "You didn't see what we left behind.  We don't know what these monsters are capable of doing, and they have captured Kari."

Tai dropped down onto Izzy's bed with a worried expression.  "Kari?"

Izzy stepped forward.  "And that is all the more reason to take this slow and do it right TK.  I've already e-mailed the others to get here on the double.  We're in luck, even Mimi's in town this weekend for a visit." He checked his messages.  "Yeah, they've all responded and are dropping what they are doing.  Well except for Ken and Cody."

"What a great time to get the chicken pox." Davis said with a dour expression.  "If they'd been along, we would have been able to DNA digivolve and send those creepy little demon thingies back to where they came from."  He limped over the bed and plopped down on it beside Tai, content to wait.  He couldn't exactly get through to the Digiport without first seriously harming Matt, and he felt a little bit outnumbered in Izzy's room.

Izzy looked over at Yolei's swollen wrist, then his eyes wandered to Davis's swollen ankle.  "Um, you guys okay?"

"Yes." They said in unison, eyes darting around at light speed.

"TK." Matt stated with a worried expression.  "Your eye." It was getting puffy and was pink going on purple.

TK scowled.  "We're fine.  We're all fine.  Would you quit with the concern?  We're here.  We're fine.  Kari is who knows where, possibly being tortured or worse.  Now is not the time to be sitting here on our butts wasting another minute."  He took a menacing step towards Matt.

Matt held his ground.  "We are not going anywhere.  Do you see Gatomon jumping at the bit to go back?"

Gatomon looked up with worried blue eyes.  "They're right TK.  We need all the information and help we can get before we even try going back.  Remember what happened the last time we tried to fight them?"

"Who is them?" Izzy asked, opening his laptop and logging on.  "I'll upload one of your digivices."

"They're called Acolytemon." Yolei said, handing him her device with a sigh.  "Hey Izzy, does your mom have any ice?"

"Yeah.  Hey Tai." He waved a hand in front of the unnaturally quiet Tai.  "Could you go ask my mom for some ice packs for these guys."  He saw Tai's eyes light up.  The poor guy needed something to keep his mind off his missing younger sister.  Mentioning torture had not been the brightest idea TK had ever come up with.

TK finally turned away from Matt in defeat and started pacing instead.  "When are they going to get here?  Izzy, you did tell them this is a matter of life and death, right?"

"Yes." Izzy stated shortly.  "Sit down TK.  You are making me nervous."

Davis pulled TK to the spot on the bed next to him.  "Come on TW, if we work together, I think we could take him." He motioned in Matt's direction with his very expressive muddy brown eyes.

TK watched his older brother standing casually right in front of the digiport, hands on his hips, watching Yolei and Izzy working on the laptop earnestly.  TK shook his head.  "Are you nuts?  For one thing, Izzy, Yolei and Tai are all on Matt's side.  A second thing, Matt's a way dirtier fighter than both of us put together, and a third thing, you are seriously gimped." He pointed to Davis's ankle.  "I'll bet you and Yolei get left behind on this rescue mission."

Davis jumped up.  "No way, they can't do that.  I'm fine, see?" He limped across the floor with a strained grin on his face.  "It doesn't hurt a bit." He tripped over Tai's soccer ball.  "Aaaah!  Ooooh.  Oh.  Yeah.  It doesn't hurt a bit."

"Then why are you crying?" TK whispered, giving him a hand up.  "You'd better rest, Davis."

Davis pouted.  "Did I get a rug burn on my chin?"  He asked, rolling his eyes this way and that way, trying to get a look at the damage.

"No." TK said, sagging.

Patamon came up beside him.  "Don't worry TK.  Kari is very strong.  Just like you are.  We'll save her and everything will be all right again.  You'll see."  He smiled.

"Patamon's right TK." Gatomon said, patting the boy wearing the white hat on the leg.  "It wasn't your fault she got left behind either."

TK straightened.  "Yes it is."

Izzy's bedroom door flew open and Tai came in with an armload of ice packs.  "Oh cold.  Oh cold." He said, throwing one at Davis.  "Here you go.  One for Davis, one for Yolei." He handed it to the girl with purple colored spaghetti hair, who was absently stroking her little pink in-training digimon.  "And one for TK." Behind him came Sora, Mimi and Joe.  All three were out of breath.

"What is so important that I had to leave my manicurist before she could buff my nails?" Mimi asked with her trademark million dollar smile.

Joe looked worried, but that was not unusual.  "The message sounded really intense Izzy.  Not much ruffles your feathers; so what's going on?  Trouble in the Digiworld?"

Izzy nodded.  "Big trouble."

"Kari's been captured!" Davis blurted out, bending over to place the icepack on his tender ankle.  "Yeowch!  This is _cold_!  Where did you get it Tai, the _North Pole_ or something?"

Tai frowned.  "Um, the freezer Davis.  It _is_ an icepack."

"TK, what happened to your eye?" Sora asked with concern, moving closer and reaching out to touch him near his temple.

"It's fine." TK snapped angrily, shrugging her off.  "Could we forget about my stupid eye and Davis's stupid ankle, and Yolei's stupid wrist and get on with this update?  We're all here.  Kari's been captured by Acolytemon so lets get a move on and digiport already!"

Everyone looked at TK as if he had grown another head.

"TK." Matt said evenly.  "You need to calm down.  Tell us exactly what happened.  Start at the beginning."

TK bristled.  He resented Matt talking to him in such a patronizing tone.  "Okay.  We were on a routine patrol." He said flatly, looking at his older brother with contempt.  "Everything looked okay.  The digimon were all in their rookie forms, except for Gatomon, and we were just leaving the Gotsumon village.  We took a new path, thinking it was a shortcut, but it ended up taking longer.  Anyway, we almost made it to the TV when…"

"The whole landscape was suddenly crawling with these horrible little black trolls!" Davis interrupted.  He made some snorting-snarling noises and squinched up his face.  "Seriously ugly little guys."

"Not so little." Izzy stated, pointing at his laptop.  "Acolytemon.  They live to serve their master.  These guys you fought are the little fish, Davis."

"That's all the more reason for us to get moving." TK stated agitatedly.  "We don't know who has Kari.  We have to go and save her before it's too late.  Tai?" TK appealed to Kari's worried looking older brother.  Tai at least would agree with him.  After all, he _was _an overprotective older brother, just like Matt.

Tai rubbed his neck.  "OK.  TK's right." He said softly.  "Our number one priority is to find and rescue Kari." He looked up searchingly.  "I'll understand if the rest of you guys don't come with me.  We don't know who has her or what they want with her, so we'd be going in blind."

"Tai, how can you even think we wouldn't go with you?" Mimi exclaimed.  "We are a team after all."

"Yeah!" Davis yelled, raising his fist in the air as he leapt to his feet.  "Ow!" He staggered back down.  "We're all here for you." He continued, rubbing his ankle briskly.

"Thanks guys." Tai said.  "I know all of you would move heaven and earth for Kari and me, and anyone else on the team."

Davis puffed up proudly.  "Yeah.  We're there 24/7 for anyone in trouble.  That was a great pep talk Tai.  Let's get going." He jumped up again with a yelp of pain.

Matt pushed him back down onto the bed.  "He's not done yet, so sit down and be quiet, Davis."

Tai nodded.  "He's right Davis.  I have one more thing to say.  TK, Yolei and Davis, I'm sorry, but we are going to have to leave you three behind."

"WHAT?" TK and Davis bellowed at the same time, this time the both of them leaping up off the bed.

"No, no, no." TK shook his head firmly.  "You are NOT leaving here without me."

"TK." Matt began softly.  "You know it's for the best."

TK glared at his older brother.  "It is not for the best Matt.  Kari needs me."

"Look, all three of you have been injured." Izzy replied.  "You need medical treatment before heading back to the Digiworld, and we can not wait that long to go back.  Therefore logically, you three need to stay here until you've recuperated."

"I'm fine." TK growled.  "All I've got are bruises."

"Sorry TK." Matt shook his head.  "I just don't think it would be a very good idea."

TK bristled.  "You don't think it would be a very good idea.  Who gave you the right to veto my place on the team?  I'm coming.  There is no time to bring it before a committee."

"Yeah.  Same goes for me." Davis exclaimed.  "Me and TM have to come along.  We were supposed to be looking out for Kari.  The only one we managed to save was Yolei."

Yolei glared at them.  "You saved me?  That's a laugh.  If I hadn't shoved the both of you through the computer portal, all four of us would have been captured instead of just Kari." She looked up at Tai sadly.  "I'm only sorry I couldn't shove Kari through as well."

Tai nodded.  "Thanks Yolei.  Davis, you'd seriously slow us down with that bum ankle of yours."

"What bum ankle?" Davis asked innocently.  "My ankles both feel just great."

Matt rolled his eyes.  "Right.  That's why you keep whimpering every time you put your weight on it."

"Well if TW goes.  I go."

"Neither one of you is going." Matt replied through gritted teeth.  "This is not a topic up for debate."

TK put his hands on his hips.  "Okay.  I agree.  Yolei and Davis are injured and are both in need of medical treatment.  I'm fine.  And I'm coming too.  You guys need someone who can armor digivolve, remember?"

"TK." Matt said.

"You're not the boss of me, Matt." TK said stubbornly.  "I've got just as much right as you do, if not more to be in the digiworld, and I won't stay back on just your say so." He turned away from his brother.  "I'll only stay behind if it's a unanimous vote.  But just to let you know, I'll make your lives miserable until the day I die if you don't let me come."

Sora looked up at TK sadly.  "TK, Matt isn't doing this just to make your life miserable.  You can't see it, but you're too close emotionally to Kari.  You are thinking with your heart instead of your head.  We're only trying to protect you."

TK pounced.  "You guys are always trying to protect me.  Ever since I was a little kid.  Well you don't have to anymore.  I'm the same age you all were, even older than some of you the first time we were in the Digital world.  And Tai has just as many emotional ties to Kari as I do and I don't see you forbidding him from coming." By the time he had finished his tirade, TK's cheeks were flushed red in anger.

Tai sighed.  "Okay.  TK you can come." He turned to Matt.  "Don't bother arguing Matt, he has an air-tight argument and besides, he's right.  We do need someone who can armor digivolve and use a D3 terminal."

Matt nodded.  "I won't argue, but I still think this is a bad idea."

"No one asked you for your opinion." TK stated crisply.  "Now let's get going already.  Kari needs us!"

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer:  We do not own Digimon; we just like to write about them.

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 2

By Fenris5000—Angelica

The bright humming light faded away, revealing the seven original Digidestined and two Digimon in a jumbled mass of arms and legs.

"Ow, that's my hand you're standing on, Joe!" Mimi shrieked.

"Oh sorry, Mimi." Joe blushed crimson, scrambling to remove himself from the pink-haired girl's flattened hand.

Mimi rubbed her fingers.  "That's okay, just don't do it again."

TK leapt up and whirled around wildly, looking for any signs of Kari or the Acolytemon that had ravaged the area not all that long ago.  "They're gone." He said softly, collapsing into the soft velvety green grass with a stricken look on his face.  "We've got to find her!"

"We will." Tai responded confidently.  He squinted up at the sky, shading his eyes against the bright digital sunshine.  "Looks like we'll have several hours of daylight." He turned to their resident computer expert.  "Any ideas on where we should start looking, Izzy?" TK got back to his feet slowly.

The red head had his laptop ready and was already searching his database.  "Well Tai, considering the fact that we have no idea who even has Kari, I'm going to have to play it cautious and say 'no'."

"Couldn't we get a track on her D3 device?" Sora asked helpfully, watching sympathetically while Tai and TK paced.

Izzy frowned.  "That's what I've been trying to do, but so far, she's not showing up.  The evil digimon who's captured her must have found some way to disable it."

"Gatomon, can you sense where she could be?" Matt asked, turning to Kari's digimon with hope.

Gatomon shook her head sadly.  "No."

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Tai sighed, pausing.  He ran his fingers nervously through his impossibly big brown hair.

Izzy clicked a few more keys.  "Well, I've e-mailed Gennai to see if he has any insight into Kari's abduction.  If anyone would know, it would be him."

"So we're just going to sit here and wait for Gennai to contact us?" TK asked quietly.  "That could take days.  I say we just start looking for clues right now." He was still pacing, biting his bottom lip.

Matt gazed around the area pensively.  "Nobody's stopping you TK, but I'm not sure exactly what we're looking for.  I can't see any sign of footprints leading off somewhere for us to follow.  These Acolytemon are either very thorough and clean up after themselves, have the ability to teleport, or can fly."

Izzy looked up from his computer.  "My info on them is not very extensive.  It doesn't say whether they fly or not."

"Does it say if they eat people?" Mimi asked, her eyes wide, stepping closer to Joe for some kind of protection.

"Here's a scary thought." Joe said, looking around nervously.  "What if they are still here, hiding."

TK stopped pacing and gave Joe a glare.  "If they were around here, I guarantee they wouldn't be hiding.  They already know we're a bunch of chickens who run away at the first sign of trouble."

The others flinched at the digidestined child of Hope's harsh words.

Izzy cleared his throat.  "TK, a tactical retreat is not a cowardly decision when you are outnumbered a thousand to one with some new digital monster who you've never laid eyes on before.  If you had stayed, the chances are better than average that you would have also been captured.  Instead of only rescuing one person, we would be on a mission to rescue four of you, plus who knows when we would have discovered you actually needed help."

"Izzy's right." Matt said.  "Plus we've got four reserve teammates back home that will be joining us as soon as they're back on their feet."

"Okay, okay.  Yolei was right to drag us out, but we should have grabbed Kari as well."

Gatomon flinched.  "TK, every time you start talking like that, you remind me that I let Kari down.  I know I lost her, but I'm going to find her again." Her enormous blue eyes glistened with unshed tears.

TK blushed.  "Gatomon, I didn't mean it like that."

The air by Izzy's laptop started to crackle and a white light flashed and hummed, heralding the presence of the teleporting Gennai.  He materialized beside Izzy, running a hand through his dark hair and flipping his little braid over his shoulder.  He glanced over the assembled group and winked.

"Okay, what is the problem now, digidestined?  I was on a winning streak at the Digi-Palace Hotel/Casino in Digi-Los Vegas.  I nearly had Frigimon right where I wanted him."

"You mean there's gambling in the Digiworld?"  Sora asked in horror.

Gennai looked mortified.  "A little friendly wager never hurt anybody, Sora." He turned to Izzy.  "So I repeat:  What is the problem?"

"Kari's been kidnapped by Acolytemon." Tai responded.  "Do you know where they've taken her so we can go get her back?"

"Acolytemon, hey?" Gennai repeated thoughtfully.  "I haven't heard from them in a while.  Were you able to get any information from your computer, Izzy?"

Izzy shook his head.  "Nothing helpful.  It just said they serve a greater master.  It doesn't even say which one."

Gennai shook his head.  "There isn't just one.  Acolytemon serve beings of great power.  At the present time, I believe they have all congregated to Ash Island where the… um, well, I suppose you could call them the 'Evil Ones', have been banished."

Joe gulped audibly.  "Evil Ones?  Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to want to hear the rest of this?"

Gennai cleared his throat.  "A long time ago, there were five evil ones who roamed freely in the Digiworld.  To make a very long story very short:  they meant to take over the Digital world separately.  One by one, they were stopped, captured and banished to Ash Island, a Digital Prison of sorts."

Matt frowned.  "Why banish them to the same place?  Isn't that just asking for trouble?  Weren't you worried they might team up or something?"

Gennai smiled, shaking his head.  "That could never happen.  The five Evil Ones hate each other.  They could never work together.  They would just as soon kill each other before they would become allies." He paused and frowned thoughtfully.  "At least I don't think they would be desperate enough to help each other."

"Could they hypothetically escape banishment if they all joined forces?" Izzy asked curiously.

Gennai frowned again.  "Hypothetically, anything is possible, Digidestined.  They may be working together.  They may have figured out a way to beat their banishment.  They may have even kidnapped the eighth Digidestined.  I don't have all the answers; but I will give you some advice."

"Advice?" Joe asked.  "I think I'd rather have the answers to those hypothetical questions." He said in a disheartened tone.

"My advice is that Ash Island is that way." He pointed up the road.  "Coincidentally, it is not very far.  To defeat an Evil One, you first need to acquire the heart talisman.  There is one heart talisman for each Evil One.  They were placed in the fortresses on Ash Island that were to be the residing places of the Evil Ones."

"Do these 'Evil Ones' have names or do we call them Evil 1, Evil 2, yadda, yadda, yadda?" Tai asked.  This was taking way too long, so he started to prompt their mentor.

Gennai sensed Tai's impatience.  "Yes they have names as well as powers.  I was just getting to that.  They all possess the powers of dark light.  Darknessmon is evil darkness, Poisonmegamon is poison, Sorceryladydevimon is magic.  Banefiremon is bane fire and Chaosdevimon is the black light of force."

"They sound scary." Mimi trembled.

Gennai nodded.  "You could say they are scary.  They are cunning, but their number one priority is self-preservation.  Banishing them to Ash Island was no easy task.  If they have joined forces, you will not have an easy journey rescuing Kari." He put his hands into his pockets.  "Before I go, let me just remind you.  Do not go after these Digimon without capturing the heart talismans first." He nodded.  "Now I'll be going." He waved and teleported out of site.

"But Gennai…" Izzy scrambled to his feet.

TK had his hands on his hips.  "Okay, so we've seen Gennai, and we know which direction Kari is being held, so let's go."

"TK, Gennai wasn't sure Kari is even on Ash Island." Sora reminded the uncharacteristically hotheaded young blond.  "He just said that is where most of the Acolytemon have been hanging out."

Matt joined Izzy and Tai who were talking quietly and fidgeting with the laptop.  "Any idea how the Acolytemon knew about the Digidestined?  Were they sent by the…er, Evil Ones?"

"I don't know." Izzy said with a frustrated tone.  "Gennai beamed out of here so fast I couldn't ask him.  I have at least forty-six questions for him to answer that haven't even been asked yet."

"Well, why don't we just move on and take our chances one step at a time." Tai suggested.  He glanced over the rest of the group.  "If we don't get a move on soon, I think TK's gonna go all squirrelly on us."

Matt nodded.  "I still think it was a mistake for him to come.  I have never seen him like this before."

Tai shrugged his shoulders.  "TK will be O.K.,  we're here to watch over him.  He's just worried about Kari.  And so am I."

"I know." Matt said with a defeated sight.  "Come on, let's get going."

They followed the road for a few miles before they reached the beach.  A large rowboat waited by the dock invitingly.  A dense white fog lay thickly on the water for as far as their eyes could see.  They approached the boat and Tai jumped in bravely.  

"Well, it hasn't sunk yet." He said with a nervous grin.  "And there is plenty of room for the lot of us."

"Hey!  What about us?" A voice squeaked from behind them.

"Gomomon!" Joe yelled happily.

"Agumon!" Tai grinned hugely.

"Biyomon!" Sora rushed to her pink Digimon with open arms.

"Tentomon!" Izzy wore a relieved smile.

"Palmon!" Mimi squealed.

"Gabumon!" Matt exclaimed.  "Am I ever glad to see you."

"We couldn't let you leave for Ash Island without us." The blue and white furry wolf-lizard Digimon said, giving his tall blond Digidestined a hug.  "It's been so long since you last came to visit."

Matt shrugged.  "I know.  Sorry.  We're here now."

"And this isn't a social visit." TK said firmly.  "Alright everyone, let's get into the boat and get this over with."

"TK, calm down." Matt said.

"Quit telling me to calm down, Matt!" TK exploded.  "While we are all here nice and safe—visiting—Kari could be dying somewhere.  When are you going to get it through your thick skull?  We can't waste any more time!"

Matt stepped back, hurt at the venom in TK's words.

Gabumon watched the brothers through concerned eyes.  He hated seeing them fight.

Tai cleared his throat uncomfortably.  "Okay, um, everyone get into the boat.  We'll decide our next step once we reach the island." He turned to Izzy who was seating himself across from him.  Agumon and Tentomon positioned themselves beside the big haired leader at the helm.  "Hey Izzy, do you still have that map program?"

Izzy nodded.  "Of course." He loaded it and watched as the screen blinked a few times, finally to reveal a  picture of a large dark looking island.  It was squarish in shape, maybe rhombus would be a better description, with two nice sized cove-like inlets on opposite sides of the island.  The south end of the island tapered off almost to a point and was made up mostly of the 'Cliffs of Shadow'.  Mimi and Palmon sat down primly beside Izzy and proceeded to stare at the screen as well.

"How can one island have forests, lakes, rivers, cliffs, mountains, gardens and a desert?" She asked in a disbelieving tone.  "Do you have any idea what that jumble of climates is going to do to our complexions?"

Palmon was daintily primping the pink flower on her head, nodding fiercely.

Joe and Gomomon sat on their other side and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.  "My sinuses are going to probably have a field day." He lamented sourly.

Everyone else got on board as was comfortably possible for seven teenagers and eight multisized Digimon.

"This fog is as thick as pea soup." Tai exclaimed, squinting, trying to make out anything as TK and Matt rowed them slowly forward.  "Ha!  I've always wanted to say that." He giggled, turning back to the group.

"Just keep your eyes in front of us Tai." Matt gasped.  They had not gotten very far and he was already getting tired.  It was a good thing he had never tried out for the Odaiba Junior rowing team; he would have died of embarrassment.  

"Why bother?" Tai sighed.  "I can't see a darn thing anyway." He pointed at Izzy.  "Izzy's tracking us on the laptop anyway."

Izzy nodded excitedly.  "This is the first time I've gotten to use the radar tool.  Prodigious!" He traced his finger along the island.  "There, I think the southwest inlet here would be the best place to dock.  We'll be on this side of the Cliffs of Shadow.  Then we can start for the first fortress which I recommend to be the Crystal Gardens."

TK shook his head.  "I know Gennai advised us to collect those heart Talisman things, but I don't think we have time." He grunted.

Matt pulled his oar out of the water, narrowly missing whacking Gabumon in the head, and turned an incredulous eye on his brother.  "What?  You want to go after these monsters without the talismans?" He wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand.  "Tai, tell him this is his most ridiculous idea yet."

Tai bit his lip and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Tell him Tai." Sora said from the back of the boat.

Tai ducked.  "Now you guys, normally I'd say:  'Yeah!!!!!  Let's go after the Talismans!  We're all for adventure!!!"  He regarded his companions sadly.  "But it will take time we can not afford to lose.  We've got eight Digimon.  They can all digivolve to champion.  One can armor digivolve.  We're fighting only five who may or may not even be together.  I have faith in us.  I think we can take them without the trinkets."

"Tai." Matt said, putting his oar back into the water.  "I know you are out of your mind with worry about Kari.  I'd probably feel the same way if it were TK being held prisoner instead.  I really think we'd better go in to save Kari with all our bases covered."

Tai stuck out his chin.  "Well Matt, if you feel that strongly about it, you don't have to come with us.  We can split up.  TK, me and whoever wants to join us will go after Kari.  As back up, the rest of you can go find those heart talismans.  If anything happens, you guys can come to the rescue." He looked out into the cold fog again and shivered slightly.  He wished he'd had the time to trade his khaki cargo shorts and electric blue cotton T-shirt for something a little warmer.

"Tai, I thought you said it would take all eight Digimon to defeat the five evil ones." Mimi said.

Izzy nodded.  "Yes, I do not think we should split up."

"Fine." TK said.  "Then we will all go to the main temple together to rescue Kari.  The fifteen of us can do it, I just know we can."

"Right." Tai agreed, nodding his head rapidly.  "We do have the element of surprise on our side after all.  Maybe we won't even have to fight.  You know, maybe we can sneak in like a covert operation and snatch her back without anyone even noticing us."

Izzy cleared his throat.  "Um…  we're just about in the cove Tai, can you see anything yet?"

Tai craned his neck around and squinted into the white haze.  "Er, no… wait a minute, I saw a tree.  There.  Yeah.  We're finally here.  Just keep rowing guys, we're headed straight for the beach."

A few strokes later, the boat hit the sand and stopped with a grinding noise.  

"Land Ho!" Tai shouted, jumping out of the boat with a splash.  "Okay, everybody disembark, we've got places to go, evil Digimon to defeat, and a damsel in distress to rescue."

Mimi put a hand on Tai's shoulder to steady herself as she attempted to climb out of the boat without snagging or soiling her baby-pink and white vertical striped shorts.  "Tai, we all know you are quite witty, but could you please knock off all the hackneyed clichés?  You are starting to get annoying."

Tai pouted, grabbing her hand.  "But I've always wanted to say that." He whined, helping her down.  The rest of the 

Digidestineds and their Digimon carefully followed suit.

After hiding the boat under some brush; Tai, Agumon, Sora and Biyomon led the group up onto the beach and over a low stonewall.  The air was still slightly misty and cool, but to their left, they could see the desert begin a short distance away, and the heat waves coming off it looked so unnatural that Sora had to rub her eyes.  To their right were these tall craggy evil looking cliffs.

Mimi shuddered as a low moaning sound appeared out of nowhere.  "What was that?" She gasped, clutching the nearest arm she could reach, which happened to be Sora's

"Um, it was probably just the wind, Mimi." Sora answered with a hesitant smile.  It sure didn't sound like the wind.

The moans changed slightly to sound like laughter and howling.  

The hair stood up on the back of Sora's neck.  "I don't like this place you guys, lets get out of here."

Biyomon nodded.  "We've never come here before, you don't suppose we'll be trapped here forever, do you?"

Izzy shook his head.  "No, Gennai knows we're here, he wouldn't have sent us here if we couldn't leave." He opened his laptop and started typing.  "According to my map program, the main temple is through this passage between the Cliffs of Shadow and the foothills." He pointed to the well-worn path through the grass.

The mournful wailing grew louder.

"Well let's go then." Mimi said in a shaky voice, taking the lead at almost a run.  The rest of the Digidestined and their Digimon hastily followed the pink-haired girl.

The scenery grew sharper as they headed inland, the mist dissipated and the air warmed up somewhat.  Mimi halted at the edge of a clearing after about half an hour at a fairly brisk pace.  Thankfully the moaning sounds had subsided as they left the cliff areas.

"Thank goodness." Sora said, slightly flushed, nervously tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.  "We don't really have to go back that way, do we?" she put her hands in her blue jeans pockets and tried to look casual.

Joe nervously ran his fingers through his blue-black hair.  "Is that the… er temple entrance over there?" He asked, pointing into the ill-kept courtyard.  Long grass and thistles grew mercilessly between every stone, and the stairs leading up to the entrance were crumbling in sloppy decay.

"Homey." Mimi muttered as she scanned the area.

Tai nodded.  "I know I'll probably end up regretting it, but I've got to say it."

"No." Matt responded.  "Don't you dare say:  It's quiet.  It's too quiet."

"Aw man." Tai's face fell.  "I always wanted to say that!"

Agumon looked up at his Digidestined.  "Why?  What's wrong with quiet?  It isn't possible to be too quiet is it, Tai?"

"Well let's go." TK said firmly, taking the lead.  They entered the courtyard slowly, looking around nervously.

"I don't like this, Matt."  Gabumon said to the tall blond blue-eyed boy beside him.  "I feel like we're being watched."

Matt nodded.  "Yeah, me too."

Mimi and Palmon were suddenly beside them.  "Don't you start that you guys." She said, rubbing her arms briskly.  "I'm already freaked out, okay?"

"Okay, okay." Matt said.

"Would you guys please pay attention?" TK hissed in annoyance.  "Those Acolytemon could jump out anytime."

A crackling noise interrupted.  "What's that?" Tai asked slowly.

"Teleportation signature." Izzy stated.  "Prodigious.  I think we're about to meet some munchkins."

"Everyone stand by." Tai growled.

The air crackled and a bright white light began pulsing.  A circle of figures came into existence.

The Digidestined and their Digimon took a step back in awe as the sparkles settled.

"I feel like I've just had my picture taken." Joe muttered, rubbing his eyes.  He looked at the newcomers fearfully.  There were five of them standing in a ring facing outwards.  Each of them was a good six feet tall, give or take and inch, and basically humanoid in shape.  One was female, the other four appeared to be male.   The dominant creature had pasty-white skin and was shrouded completely in a long shiny black cloak.  In his hand was an obsidian staff as tall as he was. 

"That one with the staff is called Darknessmon." Izzy whispered, typing away frantically.  "The one beside with the green skin and dark brown cloak is Poisonmegamon."

"Tell me that is not a snake wrapped around his left arm." Joe said with a slight tremor of fear in his voice.

"It sure looks like one to me." Sora replied.

Izzy typed some more.  "The lady beside him his Sorceryladydevimon." He continued, quickly pointing out the female in the black suit, mid-length thigh boots and black and gold mask.  "The one in the dragon mask and red and gold cloak is Banefiremon and the last one with the fangs and red marking on its forehead is Chaosdevimon."

"Why are they just standing there?" Matt muttered nervously out the side of his mouth.  "They know we're here, why haven't they attacked us yet?"

Tai let his eyes flicker from the new threat back to their resident computer genius.  "Izzy, does your program say what their powers are?"

Izzy scratched his head.  "Well to be perfectly honest Tai, I'm not sure what to make of this.  It says their powers have been somewhat erased.  They still have them, but due to their banishment, they are unable to direct them at a specific target for harm."

"So basically they are harmless?"

Izzy shrugged skeptically.  "According to my computer they are.  But I don't think we should underestimate them after all, if they really are harmless, why are they here now, waiting for us?"

"Who cares?"  TK blurted out.  "They know where Kari is."

"TK." Matt began.

"Back off Matt." The boy in the white hat said darkly.  "You can hide in the bushes here while I go save Kari." He stomped off a few steps towards the ring of Evil Ones, followed closely by Tai.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Matt muttered.

The five Evil Ones each took one step out, revealing the eighth Digidestined child of Light unmoving in the center of their cluster.

"Kari!" TK and Tai yelled in relieved anguish.  She was alive, but in the clutches of these five horrible creatures.

Darknessmon tapped his staff on the ground and turned to face Kari.  The rest of the ring followed suit and all five aimed a black beam of energy from their palms at the little girl in the middle.

"No!" TK shouted.  "They're going to kill her!" He ran towards them, Tai was right by his side.

Matt watched them with a growing ache of dread in his stomach.   _'Their powers have been somewhat erased.  They still have them, but due to their banishment, they are unable to direct them at a specific target for harm'_.  Kari did not look afraid.  She did not even look like the flowing black energy was hurting her.  Matt's legs started running even before he had it worked out.  Kari was under a dark spell and was going to be used by Darknessmon and his cronies to destroy the Digidestined.  He could vaguely hear Gabumon and the rest of the Digidestined and Digimon shouting after them to stop.

A dark glow surrounded the digidestined child of light and the air around her crackled with power.  Kari held a long gold candlestick like scepter that's jeweled eye emitted the same dead black stare as her own.

"Tai, TK!  Duck!" Matt gasped, barreling into the two from behind a microsecond before Kari's scepter exploded with black light.

The Digidestined watched in horror as Matt hit Tai and TK out of the way as if it was happening in slow motion, then he was lifted up off the cobblestone ground by the black light and slammed back down hard.

"Um, is Matt glowing, or is it my eyes?" Mimi asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Whoa." Joe jumped back.  "So is Gabumon."  The familiar blue glow that initiated digivolving  was now hovering around the digidestined child of Friendship's still form, and Gabumon started to change.

"I didn't know we could digivolve while our Digidestined was unconscious." Biyomon said.

"Um, I think Garurumon is still digivolving." Sora said softly.

Izzy shook his head.  "That isn't possible.  We can't without Azulongmon's extra power supporting us."

"Well Izzy, you tell Weregarurumon that." Joe exclaimed as the digivolving process finished and the fierce werewolf let out an anguished howl that was tainted with a deep fury.  The five Evil Ones had messed with the wrong boy!

"Weregarurumon, wait for us!" Sora shouted as the rest of the Digimon started transforming to their next levels.  The wolf Digimon did not wait, instead he started off at an incredible speed towards Kari and the five Evils who still surrounded her.  Just before he reached them and nearly had Darknessmon's pasty white neck between his ferocious jaws, the six disappeared in a wink of bright crackling light.

TK sat up with a stricken look on his young face.  "Kari?" He looked around, letting his eyes fall on Matt's crumpled form.  "Matt!" He scrambled over to his brother.  "No, no, no.  This wasn't supposed to happen!"

Tai scrambled to the two brothers, almost tripping over his own feet.  "Matt!  Oh no, what have we done?"  Tears blurred his vision and he swiped them away with the back of his hand.

"Get back." A low growl interrupted from behind them.

"Weregarurumon?" TK asked quietly through his own tears.  

Weregarurumon edged between the two boys and gave them a withering glare.  "You two have done enough.  Do not touch Matt.  I am looking after him." He gently gathered the unconscious boy up in his strong arms and walked out of the courtyard back into the relative safety of the unknown forest, not caring if the others followed him or not.  

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

A/N:  A special thanks to Silver_Blayde, matt4ever, Reborn and Devidramon for kindly reviewing chapters one and two.  Chapter Three is dedicated to you.  I hope you like it!  ^_^

Disclaimer:  We do not own Digimon, we just like writing about them

The Dark Scepter—Chapter Three

By Fenris5000—Angelica

The troubled group followed Weregarurumon into a small clearing beside a fast flowing river silently.  Each of them had three questions on their mind:  what was going on with Kari, would Matt be okay, and how was Gabumon able to digivolve all the way to ultimate and maintain it while Matt was unconscious.  Weregarurumon gently laid his digidestined down on a soft looking patch of grass and gave him a brief examination.

Joe cleared his throat nervously.  He had been too shocked by the recent developments and then Weregarurumon's fury to recommend not moving Matt from the courtyard in case he'd hurt his neck or back.  "Um, Weregarurumon, I've been studying first aide in school, um, would you like some um…  help with Matt?" He cringed, waiting for the large irate wolf-type digimon to tell him to back off.

Weregarurumon's gaze softened somewhat.  "Thank you Joe,  I have not the skill or knowledge.  All I know is that this did not have to happen."  His eyes darkened as they flickered over the miserable children of Courage and Hope, who looked like they were not quite brave enough to approach Weregarurumon themselves.

TK stared at Matt through tear filled glassy red eyes.  "Why hasn't he woken up yet?" He choked.  "He's not hurt bad.  He can't be.  He just can't be."

Sora approached TK and put her arms around him comfortingly.  "It'll be okay." She soothed hesitantly, hoping she wasn't telling a lie.  She gulped as she watched Matt's still pale form.

Joe set to work.  He squeezed Matt's shoulder hard and looked for a response in the other boy's face.  "Matt!  Can you hear me?" He shouted near Matt's left ear, then the right one.  Nothing.  Okay.  Unconscious.  They had already established that.  This was probably the time he'd yell for someone to phone an ambulance if he was at home in Odaiba.  Too bad they weren't at home.

"Well?" Mimi asked, joining Joe at Matt's side.

Joe scratched his head.  "No broken bones, no open wounds.  Just a lot of bruising, and he's going to have a humdinger of a headache when he wakes up."

Tai was pacing, his head hung low.  He gaze flickered over his injured best friend.  "I can't believe this has happened." He stopped.  What exactly did happen?  He sat down between Agumon and Izzy with a sigh.  "Izzy, what happened?"

The red haired computer genius looked at his miserable wild-haired leader with some confusion.  "Well Tai, my best guess is that Kari has, well for a lack of better words, joined the _dark _side."

"You take that back Izzy!"  Tai frowned, grinding his jaw angrily.  "She'd never do that."

Izzy shrugged his shoulders.  "Hey, don't get mad at me, Tai.  I saw her aim her attack right at you and TK.  Her own brother and um…  best friend.  If Matt hadn't pushed you guys out of the way like he did, you'd either be dead, or in his condition."

"That's insane." Tai said weakly, fidgetting with his orange shoelace.  "Kari would never hurt any of us.  She'd die first."

Izzy nodded, "Yeah, I have a theory on that as well.  I think she's under some kind of spell."

TK crawled over to Joe, Mimi, Weregarurumon and Matt silently, watching and hoping he was welcome to stay.

"What if he's in a coma?" Mimi asked shrilly, wringing her hands.  "We can't help him here.  He needs a doctor and a hospital."

"Wait, I think he moved his hand." TK said excitedly, hesitantly grabbing Matt's hand and giving it a gentle encouraging squeeze.  "Come on Matt, please wake up.  Please?  I'll do anything." He just_ had_ to be okay.

Matt's eyes slowly flickered open in a painful squint.  Everything hurt.  He heard a pathetic far off groan as the fuzzy too bright images around him started to focus somewhat.  He could hear some quiet murmuring and felt something squeezing his right hand painfully.  A pink and white blur swung across his field of vision; and then more noise.  He heard another groan.  This time it sounded more like a painful whimper.  Who was hurt that badly?  He blinked a few times, hoping to clear his vision a bit, but all he could see was the colorful blurs.  The murmering was starting to get louder, and some words were beginning to make some sense now.  Someone was digging their fingers into his shoulders.

"Matt.  Wake up."

TK?  That pink blob was TK?  He heard another groan.  This time it was closer.  It sounded like his own.  He had not made a noise like that since that time he'd fallen off the tree fort at school years ago and broken his arm.  That had hurt; but this hurt more.  He clenched his eyes shut as he became aware of the pain in his head.  His stomach churned as he fought to roll onto his side before the gagging started.  He could feel some hesitant clumsy hands trying to support him on his side as his insides settled down.  He had somehow managed to keep from throwing up.  Now all he had to do was collect his bearings.

"Matt?" That sounded like Joe.  Playing doctor again.

"Yeah." Matt croaked.  He shuddered as his body was racked with a sudden pain.  Somebody was smoothing his hair off his forehead.  "…Don't."  He whispered.  His vision started fading.  No!  If he passed out, he'd just have to wake up again.  There was something they were supposed to be doing.  They didn't have time for this.  He took a deep quaking breath to stave off the approaching blackness.

"Matt." A deep gruff voice said gently.  "Are you okay?"

What?  That voice!  How could it be?  Matt slowly shifted and tried to focus.  There were two slightly fuzzy Weregarurumons in front of him; both wearing equally concerned expressions.  "Weregarurumon." Matt gasped, trying to sit up very slowly.  He was appreciative as Joe, Mimi and TK moved to help.  He brought his hand to his head as a new unwelcome sensation that he was on a rollercoaster ride accosted him.  Everything was spinning and the urge to throw up was still lingering, waiting.  "Man, oh man."  He grimaced.  His skull felt like it was splitting open.

"Matt, I'm so sorry."  TK choked out, careful to hug his injured older brother gently.  "I never meant for this to happen."

Matt felt his younger brother's hot tears splattering all over his black shirt and arms.  "Mmm.  What happened?"

"You saved Tai and TK."  Mimi said, giving him a smile he could just make out.  "Kari attacked them.  You got hit instead."

Kari!  It was all starting to come back.  Matt felt his breath quicken.

Joe of course noticed.  "Come on Matt, settle down.  You need to get some rest.  Lie back.  You took a pretty nasty hit to the head."

"No."  Matt whispered, feebly resisting the hands trying to lay him down.  "I'm fine, we have to start after the talismans.  There isn't time for this." Tears of pain and frustration pricked at the corners of his eyes.  

"Matt." Weregarurumon caught his digidestined's attention and was able to ease the injured boy back.  "You have been badly hurt.  You need to rest."

"How did you digivolve?" Matt mumbled finally.  "I don't have my crest."

Weregarurumon shrugged his broad shoulders.  "I don't know, maybe it has something to do with Ash Island.  Maybe it was because you were hurt."

Matt craned his neck around slightly then relaxed.  Ïs Tai here somewhere?"

Tai scooted over beside his best friend in a flash before anyone could answer.  "I'm right here, buddy.  Oh Matt, you were right.  How could we have been so stupid?  We almost got you killed." He hung his head as his own words registered.  From now on, he would have to think things out better.  He wouldn't be able to live with himself if anyone came to any harm.  "Can you ever forgive me?"

"It's okay." Matt said quietly.  "You couldn't have known." He closed his eyes briefly to see if it made any difference to his killer headache.  He  opened them again, somewhat dissapointed.  "So, what now?"

Tai shrugged his shoulders.  "I'm open to suggestions."

Gatomon cleared her throat.  "Well as soon as Matt's able, I think we should get started towards the Crystal Gardens Temple for the first Talisman.  The sooner we get them, the closer we'll be to rescuing Kari." She had a lost look in her eyes.  "If Kari wants to be rescued, that is."

Patamon looked up at his friend with sympathetic eyes.  "Of course she does.  Those five creepomons just put her under their evil spell."

Tai chewed on his lip with an unsure look on his face.  "Okay, I know our last meeting with Darknessmon and his cronies was a big screw up, but I still think going after those Talismans is a big waste of time.  We weren't prepared the last time.  This time we know about their _secret weapon_.  They've lost the element of surprise."

Izzy frowned, swallowing.  "Tai, I don't think I heard you right.  Did you just say we are not going to collect the talismans?"

Sora's jaw dropped as she whirled around.  "That is just insane, Tai.  Don't you remember what just happened?  Matt almost died.  If your time is more valuable to you than your friends lives, then I would just maybe prefer not to be one of your friends." Her cheeks were turning a deep angry shade of crimson and her eyes were sparking dangerously.  Biyomon was beside her, wearing nearly the same expression of disbelief in their leader.

Tai sighed sadly.  "I'm sorry to make you feel that way, Sora."

Joe was shaking his head hesitantly.  "No Tai.  Sora's not the only one who is feeling that way."

"I agree." Mimi stated, folding her arms.

Weregarurumon stood up from Matt's side and eyed the digidestined child of courage warily.  "Haven't you learned anything from your past mistake?" He growled menacingly.  "You waited for input from Gennai, possibly the wisest person you'll ever meet, ignored his advice, paid the consequences,"--he gestured to Matt's pained form--  "and are prepared to sacrifice whoever and make the same stupid mistake." He advanced a step, clenching his massive paws into fists.

Agumon stepped in front of Tai protectively.  "Hey, now, Tai is doing the best that he can.  He wouldn't hurt anyone on purpose."

Weregarurumon growled, advancing another step.

"Hey."  Matt was trying to sit up again.  "You guys cool it.  This is no time to fight." He still felt dizzy, but it wasn't as bad as the first time.  "Weregarurumon, settle down." It was kind of weird, in the past he was always the one in the middle of the fight.  Now he knew how Sora felt.

Weregarurumon nodded.  In a flash of blue light, he dedigivolved all the way back to Gabumon and ambled over to support Matt's attempt to stay sitting up.

Gatomon hopped up onto the stump to take over where Weregarurumon had left off.  "In ten words or less Tai, it comes down to this.  This time, we're doing it right.  We are going after the Talismans like Gennai told us to.  I think they hold the key.  Maybe they'll even break the spell they have over Kari."

"If that's the way you feel about it, then I guess there's no use in trying to change your minds." Tai stated defeatedly, noticing the not too subtle sighs of relief of all the Digimon and digidestined.  "But I still think it will take too long."

Izzy approached Tai and put his hand on their leader's shoulder.  "Tai, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but our last encounter with Darknessmon and his cronies was a waste of time.  If we'd just gone after the Talismans to start with, we'd probably already have the first one, and we probably would not be hampered with an injured digidestined." He paused to glance over at the blond who was leaning against Gabumon wearing a weary expression.  "No offense Matt."

Matt rolled his eyes.  "All this talking is wasting time too."

"Well it's time you need to heal." Joe stated, taking Matt's wrist.  "Hmm.  Pulse seems normal enough, but I don't like your color."

"Blonds have more fun." Mimi smiled cheerfully.

Joe grimaced.  "Not _that_ color.  Look at his face.  I've seen white table linen with more color than this.  I think we should get Matt home right away.  He's got a mild concussion at the very least.  Worst case scenario is a fractured skull."

"Feels fractured." Matt muttered, wincing.

Joe laughed.  "I'll bet, but I'm leaning towards concussion."

Izzy opened his laptop and turned it on.  "I'll have the Digiport program up in a second.  TK, do you have your D3 device handy?"

TK reached into his pocket and scrambled to his feet to join the red haired computer genius.  The screen flickered and the gate back home materialized.  The younger blond silently aimed his palm sized digivice at the laptop and waited for the gate to open.  

Nothing happened.

"Izzy…" TK began.

Izzy frowned.  "That's odd.  Something seems to be jamming us.  The Digiport won't open.  Hmm.  Maybe if we tried it again it would work.  Go ahead TK."

TK pointed the D3 at the computer again with a feeling of apprehension niggling away at his stomach.  He bit his lip.  If the Digiport wouldn't open, that meant they would be stuck in the Digiworld.  Again the window of the laptop stayed the same.  The gate remained closed.

Izzy sat in front of the computer and started opening programs.  "There must be some glitch or something.  Don't worry, I'll get it working.  I just have to check the settings and make a few changes." This had never happened before.  Everything looked okay.  Nothing was wrong.  No viruses.  No erasures.  What was going on?  Did it have something to do with Ash Island?  Maybe there was some sort of barrier keeping them from electronically contacting the outside world or _escaping_ from the prison.  That had to be it.  So they were going to be stuck until they had defeated the Evil Ones, rendering Ash Island free of prisoners?

"Uh, guys, I think we're being blocked electronically, it must be a… um… security measure to keep the Evil Ones prisoner here." Izzy said finally after trying everything he could think of.  "E-mail isn't even functioning right now."

"Great." Tai threw up his hands in frustration.  "We've come all this way." He complained.  "Now we have to go all the way back to the Digiport across the lake?  We may as well just forget about rescuing Kari by then."

"We don't all have to go." Matt said through gritted teeth.  "Gabumon and I will go…"

"No way." TK shook his head vigorously.  "You can't go alone, what if the five Evil Ones decide to pick us off one by one.  We have to stay together."

Biyomon pulled on Sora's hand.  "I could digivolve to Birdramon and we could fly Matt and Gabumon back to the digiport."

"No." Tai shook his head.  "TK's right.  You guys would be easy pickings.  Come on, let's go, we should make it by nightfall." His face had a defeated aura to it.  The expression did not suit him.

Matt struggled to stand up, leaning on TK slightly for balance.  "Which way to the Crystal Gardens, Izzy?" He asked in a quiet, even tone.  Izzy frowned, remaining silent.  Matt sighed.  "Now look, if you guys think I'm going to let you give up, and later on use me as your excuse, then you've got another thing coming.  Let's just go collect the Talismans, defeat some evil digimon, and rescue Kari so we can all go home, okay?" He was breathing hard.  "I'll be okay.  We need to start moving.  Right now."

Tai smiled ruefully.  "You are some best friend, Matt."

"Yeah, I know." The blond grinned cheekily.  "And you are going to owe me big time when this whole mess is finally finished."

*     *     *

The little orange dinosaur type digimon stopped walking and craned his neck so he could see around the tall stone gate post that was the entrance to the Crystal Gardens courtyard.  "It looks…  um…  safe… I guess." Agumon said doubtfully.  Izzy, Gomomon and Tentomon joined him.  There wasn't a soul to be seen.

"Prodigious." Izzy said excitedly.  "Look at all the crystallized formations.  Some of them look like rose quartz and hemmatite." He turned back to the rest of the digidestined.  "If only I'd downloaded that geology program." He lamented whistfully.

"We don't have time to study the flora, fauna and crystal formations Izzy." Tai stated sternly as he and Joe stepped up beside him, supporting Matt between them.  "So let's just go in there and do what we've got to do."

Izzy frowned.  "I wasn't going to study it for the sake of studying, Tai.  What if some of those crystals are dangerous?  Maybe they are alive and start attacking us?  We can't take anything for granted in the Digiworld.  You know that."

Tentomon buzzed beside them.  "I can go try to have a conversation with one of them if you'd like.  If they were alive, I'm sure they would have many interesting things to tell us."

Mimi came up beside them for a look.  "There are pink ones!" Tears of rapture sprinkled down her cheeks.

"Rose quartz." Izzy stated.

"Some of those crystals look kind of sharp."  Sora said apprehensively.

Biyomon and Palmon nodded.  "We'd better not touch them, or we could get hurt." Palmon said, glancing at her pink-obsessed digidestined child of sincerity, who looked like she would be unable to resist just one little touch.  "Right, Mimi?"

Mimi pouted.  "Right."

"Maybe we should rest up for a few minutes before going in." TK said slowly, watching his older brother with concern.  Matt's face was ashen and his hair was darkened with sweat.  It was probably a miracle he'd lasted this long.

Tai caught Matt's eye.  "You think you can go a little further, Ishida?"

Matt nodded faintly.

"Right.  Let's keep moving then." Tai said, urging Matt and Joe into the lead.  "There's the temple over by the pillars." They entered the gardens.

"Man." Matt groaned, averting his eyes.

Joe shielded his eyes with the back of his hand.  "It's awfully bright in here.  Where are my sunglasses when I need them?"

Izzy squinted around in awe.  All the crystals had a prism-like quality to them, even the stones underfoot were shining awesomely.  Sparkling reds, pinks, blues, purples, greens, and yellows were sprouting out of the crystal beds like flowers.  Every abstract shape imaginable, every size from the smallest raindrop to the huge tree-like pillars.  The temple itself was a speckled sparkly dark grey marble.  

Sora leaned near a blood red crystal cluster adorned with paper thin delicate jade green crystals like stems and leaves.  She breathed in deeply, surprised an exquisite smell did not accompany the visual delight.

"They don't smell like flowers." Palmon said dissapointedly.  "But they sure look like flowers."

"I wonder if they need to be watered." Sora said, following Biyomon.  "I'd love to pick one, if only they weren't so sharp."

Tai nodded.  "My mom would love these.  She hasn't got a single green thumb.  She's even killed our dandylion plant.  Without pesticides."

Izzy smirked.  "Your mom was actually _trying_ to grow a dandylion plant?"

Tai made a face.  "Yeah, she read somewhere that dandylion roots are good for your liver." He shrugged.  "You know my mom." He looked at Matt, who was leaning heavily on him, his head resting forward.  "Hey Matt, you still awake there?"

"Yeah." Came the soft whisper.

Gabumon was right there.  "Tai, Joe, I think you had better set him down or he will pass out on you." His bright crimson eyes were wide with concern.

"Set him down where?"  Tai demanded.  "He'll cut himself."

Sora came over, looking around.  "How about the stairs leading to the temple.  They don't look sharp.  Hard yes, but not sharp." And they were large enough to sit comfortably on and at a very gentle slope.

Tai let Matt and Joe over to the side of the stairs and let Gabumon take the child of friendship from their grasp.  They watched as Matt leaned forward, resting his head in his hands.

TK bit his lip as he watched his brother.  He hated seeing Matt hurt.  It was all his fault.  Maybe Matt was right, maybe they should have left TK behind.  Would this still have happened?

"Do you guys hear some weird chattering, or is it just my head?" Matt asked quietly, looking up.

They all heard it.  "It's the Acolytemon!" TK said urgently.  He'd never forget that rusting noise they made in their throats.

"Okay, it's showtime." Tai exclaimed grimly.  "Agumon, digivolve!"

The bright glare of the Crystal Gardens was amplified sevenfold as each digimon capable of digivolving was engulfed in the pure blue light of power, called upon by each of the digidestined.  The kids all covered their eyes until the dazzling spectre was complete.

When Sora opened her eyes, she stepped back in revulsion.   The chattering noises which had heralded the appearance of the Acolytemon had changed to the grunting growling noises Davis had for once not been overexaggerating about.  Greymon sent a novablast that obliterated two Acolytemon before smashing into the bed of blue crystals, sending a rain of fine blue powdery dust around them.

"Try not to damage the crystals guys!"  Izzy shouted, shaking the dust from his hair agitatedly.  "We don't know if this stuff is harmful or not yet!"

"Sorry Izzy." Greymon said gruffly.

Garurumon blueblastered a rough retaining wall of ice around the crystal beds, then turned his attention to a nearby cluster of Acolytemon who were approaching the digidestined on the stairs.

"What is their attack, Izzy?" Tai asked with a tremor in his voice.

Izzy had his laptop open and was frantically typing.  He stopped with a worried frown.

"Well?" Mimi, Sora and Kabuterimon said in unison.

The red haired computer genius gulped and looked up.  "Acolytemon are followers of digimon who possess great power." He wiped at a sweat droplet that was running down his face.  "It's because they mimic their master's power."

Tai paled.  Did this mean each Acolytemon potentially possessed the powers of all five Evil Ones?  Or did it mean they had no powers because the Evil Ones were under bannishment?

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon shouted, aiming at and striking one of the Acolytemon who was glowing a sickly green color.

Another two Acolytemon took it's place at the foot of the stairs, glowing that same green color.  Both had their silver eyes trained on the digidestined.  They seemed to be ignoring the champion level digimon altogether.

"Um, maybe we should go into the temple." Joe said smiling nervously as he stood up.  "I don't really want to know exactly how powerful these guys are.  I don't need a demonstration."

Tai and TK helped Matt up.  They backed into the temple, watching as Birdramon swooped in.  "Meteor wing!" A shower of fire balls obliterated the little evil black digimon.

"Yay Birdramon!" Sora shouted, raising a triumphant fist in the air before following the rest of her friends into the temple.  Kabuterimon and Gatomon followed, keeping an eye behind them for Acolytemon.  

The roof of the temple was of a clear crystal, like a skylight prism, forming tiny rainbows dancing all over the grey speckled walls.  The floor was pink crystal tiles.  A center platform that could have been an alter dominated the room.  Four pillars that shone with a mirror-like quality appeared to support a silky black canopy over the alter.  In the center of the alter was a giant smokey pale stalagmite growing out of the floor.  The mirrored pillars reflected the light to hit the stone like a spotlight.

Everyone froze.

"It's the Talisman." Matt whispered, shielding his eyes from the intense glare coming off the array.  "Strength."

Tai cocked an eyebrow at his best friend.  "You actually sound like you know what you're talking about, Matt." He laughed.  "Now let's just sit you down here against the wall."

TK knelt down beside his brother and took a piece of tissue from his pocket and gently blotted some of the sweat from Matt's forehead.  "Are you okay, Matt?  You're not hot are you?"

Matt's eyes narrowed as he focussed on something over TK's shoulder.  TK whirled around and stood up protectively in front of his brother.  The tall ugly digimon in the dirty brown cloak looked so out of place in the bright purity of the temple.  The grotesque green and black snake digimon wrapped around Poisonmegamon's left forearm watched the digidestined and two champion level digimon disdainfully, hissing menacingly.

"Poisonmegamon!" Tai exclaimed, clenching his fists in anger.  "What have you done with my sister?"

The digimon smirked at them.  "Ah, you remember my name.  I'm flattered."

"Kabuterimon.  Attack!" Izzy shouted.

Poisonmegamon laughed darkly.  "Oh, how brave.  You would attack a poor unarmed digimon.  Here, I'll make it even easier; I will turn my back."

"He's toying with us." Tai exploded.

The sounds of battle outside were waning down.

Gatomon leapt towards the greenish skinned evil Poisonmegamon with her claws extended.  "Sounds like your Acolytemon are nearly finished, now where's Kari?  Lightening…"

Poisonmegamon bowed and was engulfed in a cloud of sickly green haze.

"…  Paw?" Gatomon landed right where Poisonmegamon had just vacated.  "Now where did he go?  I wasn't finished with him yet!"

Izzy shrugged, letting his eyes wander the room.  "Well, he doesn't have the power to fight us, and his Acolytemon were losing.  It's only natural that he would retreat."

Gabumon, Gomomon, Biyomon, Agumon, Palmon and Patamon entered the temple, looking hungry, as usual.

"Is there anything to eat in here Tai?" Agumon asked.  "Fighting Acolytemon sure works up an appetite."

Tai shook his head with a smile, walking up to the crystal stalagmite.  "Not unless you want a crystal on a stick." He peered into the depths.  "Hey, there's an orange rock or something in there." He stated excitedly.

TK and Gabumon brought Matt over as Kabuterimon dedigivolved back to Tentomon now that the threat was temporarily over with.  "That orange rock is the Talisman of Strength, Tai." Matt said through clenched teeth.  "If you can figure a way to get it out, it's yours."

Tai blinked.  "Really?  How do you know that?  Did it tell you?" He sneered.

"No." Matt sighed.  "I don't know.  I can't explain it, okay?  Just trust me on this."

Tai took another look inside the case.  "Hmm.  Strength, huh?  Hey Agumon can you break this thing?" He looked at Matt to see if the blond would object.

"Maybe if I digivolve to Greymon." The little orange dinosaur like digimon said uncertainly.  "But I'm hungry."

Joe handed Agumon a powerbar.  "Here, I brought plenty."

Agumon stuffed it into his mouth, package and all.  "Yummy.  Chocolate and Tinfoil flavour.  My favorite!"

Tai's digivice went off and Agumon transformed into Greymon in a flash of bright blue light.  "Okay, everybody stand back." The large orange dinosaur with black stripes and the brown tri-horned mask growled, stepping up next to the stalagmite.  "Great Horns Attack!" He yelled, ramming it with his head.  The sharp horns shattered the crystal instantly.

"Well that was easy." Sora said as she watched Tai sift through the sharp rubble carefully.  He picked up the fiery orange stone and brushed it off with his sleeve.  It was as large as a small plum, but flat, inlayed in tarnished silver with a long chain.

"Oh it's lovely." Mimi squealed in delight.

"A necklace?" Tai asked, his lip curling in contempt.  "Real men don't wear necklaces."

"So put it on your belt and pretend it's a pocket watch then." Matt said irritably.

"Come on guys, it's time to get a move on anyway." TK stated firmly, repositioning his hands around his brother better so he could support him easier.  "We wouldn't want to be here if Poisonmegamon comes back with some reinforcements." Greymon dedigivolved.  

"Right." Tai agreed, taking Matt's other side and leading them out.

The retaining ice walls Garurumon had put up were melting artistically around the crystal beds.

"I can't wait to get out of here." Matt moaned, once again averting his eyes.

"A couple more steps bro." TK said.  The stark brightness strained his eyes, he could only imagine what it must have done for Matt's headache.

They exited the garden and continued down the path.  "Echo Lake is next." Izzy stated resourcefully.  "According to my map program, we should stick to the path and we can be there after a few miles of walking."

Sora halted.  "No way."

Tai stopped and turned to face the red head in the red t-shirt and blue jeans.  "What do you mean:  No way?"

Sora sighed with chagrin.  "Tai, it is time for a rest."

"We just had one at the temple." Tai said, scratching his head with his free hand.  "It's only a little bit further.  Come on, we can make it."

"Am I the only one here who notices that Matt isn't even walking anymore?" She hissed, pointing to the injured member of the group, who's head had lolled forward.  "His feet are dragging.  He's got to rest.  Now."

Mimi came up beside them and lifted Matt's chin.  "Sora's right Tai.  He can't even hold up his head anymore.  And he's icky and sweaty."

"And pale as a ghost." Joe added from the rear.

Tai rolled his eyes.  "Aw come on you guys, he's not that bad, are you, Matt?"  He glanced at his best friend as Mimi let his chin go and his head sagged back down, groaning.

TK peered up at his brother and didn't like what he saw.  "Let's make camp for the night guys.  Matt's not going anywhere but to sleep."

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer:  I do not own Digimon, Gravol, or Tylenol.

A/N:  Thank you to matt4ever and Tino for your nice reviews of Chapter 3.  I hope you like Chapter 4  ^_^

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 4

By Fenris5000—Angelica

TK rolled over to escape the rays of the warm digital sunshine that were gleaming in his eyes.  He could hear someone walking around the camp.  Someone giggled softly.  Tai was telling Agumon to start the fire so the girls could start making breakfast.  He yelped when something whacked him.  Sora probably threw a pinecone at him.  "Chauvinist Pig." She said, loudly enough for even TK to hear.

TK yawned and blinked open his big blue eyes.  He sat up with alacrity.  Matt!  His gaze flew to where he'd set his brother down to rest the night before, beside Gabumon.  TK rubbed his eyes as he joined the blue furred digimon with the yellow horn and tail.

"How's he doing?" TK asked, his words still slightly slurred with sleep.

Gabumon shook his head; his gentle, normally happy eyes were languid with worry.  "He hasn't moved an inch all night.  He hasn't made a peep, all night.  He should have woken up by now." Gabumon had ordered TK to sleep after a few hours of sentry duty over Matt, taking the last few hours himself.

TK gave the digimon a small smile.  "Well, lets try to wake him up." He squeezed Matt's shoulder.  "Matt, come on, time to wake up."

Matt let out a hiss of pain and his eyes fluttered open.

TK let out the breath he had been holding.  He had this petrifying fear that he wouldn't be able to wake Matt up.  "Hey, welcome back."

Matt smiled wanly.  "Thanks."

"So how do you feel today?"

The smile faded.  "About the same."

"Oh Matt.  I am so sorry.  If I could make yesterday go away, I would.  I just hate seeing you like this and knowing I'm the cause." TK wiped at the salty tears that threatened to fall uncontrollably.

Matt rolled his eyes.  "Yeah, yeah, well as long as you learned your lesson this time, TK.  Never doubt your big brother.  I'm always right." He laughed.  "Ow.  My head hurts."

TK laughed.  "You want to try sitting up?"

Matt considered this with a skeptical look.  "I'll probably live to regret it, but I guess I'll have to do it sooner or later."

Gabumon gently took Matt's arm and put a supporting paw behind his back.

Once sitting, Matt was hit with a surge of nausea he couldn't hold back.

Mimi looked up from the fruit she was preparing for breakfast with sympathy.  "Oh, poor Matt."

"But he hasn't even eaten anything." Tai mumbled, keeping his eyes averted from that side of the camp.  The sounds of retching made his skin crawl.

Sora was squeezing the juice of an orangey-lemon like fruit into her water bottle.  "He's not throwing up Tai.  It's dry-heaves." She handed the half full bottle to Joe.  "You headed that way, Doctor Joe?"

Joe nodded.  "Yeah, I guess I should look in on my patient.  This juice should make him feel a little better, thanks Sora."

Gatomon followed closely, carrying a paw full of fruit and nuts for TK, Gabumon, and Matt for when they were ready for it.

Matt settled back with a groan looking gray and miserable, leaning heavily on Gabumon.

"I won't bother asking how you're feeling Matt." Joe said, handing TK the juice.  "You look like death warmed over."

"Thanks." Matt muttered tiredly.  "It'll pass."

"Yeah." Joe agreed.  "Oh, Sora squeezed you some juice.  You may not feel like it at the moment, but it would really do you good if you tried to get some down."

"Sure." Matt nodded.  "Maybe a little later." He closed his eyes.

Joe sighed.  He went back to the group by the fire.

"So how is he?" Tai asked, popping a handful of nuts into his mouth.

"Not good." Joe stated, sitting down beside Gomomon and taking the last pink and yellow striped melon wedge and sinking his teeth into it.  He wiped his mouth and turned to Izzy, swallowing.  "Do you think we could try the digiport program on your laptop one more time?" He motioned over in Matt's direction.  "To be honest, I'm surprised he's made it this far.  I'd feel a whole lot better about this mission if we could get Matt home nice and safe first."

Izzy chewed thoughtfully on a star shaped nut.  "I don't have any problem with us trying it again, but I don't think anything will change.  I'm guessing that it won't work at all because we are on Ash Island.  Evil digimon are banished here, so they probably keep it under what you might say prison conditions.  If anyone could just create a digiport, the prisoners would be out of here.  It's bad enough they can teleport to wherever they please within the boundaries of Ash Island."

Tai's face fell.

Mimi was frowning.  "You mean we could be trapped here forever?  I didn't sign on for anything permanent you know.  I have more sites to see, people to make friends with, places to shop." She was on the verge of tears.

"Calm down Mimi." Sora said to the pink haired girl in the hot pink silk shirt.  "I'm sure that once we have Kari, Gennai will come and get us out."

Izzy opened his laptop and brought up the digital gate on the screen.  "Hey TK, can you bring your D3 device over?"

TK nodded, coming over.  "You want to try it again?"

"Yeah." Izzy shrugged.  "It can't hurt."

"Okay.  Digiport open." TK said confidently, aiming his device at the laptop.

Agumon stared at the screen with anticipation.  "Tai, it isn't working."

"I can see that, Agumon." Tai sighed dejectedly.

"Curses." Izzy muttered.  "Foiled again."

Joe got up.  "Well, at least we tried." He glanced over at Matt and Gabumon.  It looked like the blue furred digimon was trying to coax his digidestined to take a sip of juice, but Matt was shaking his head, clutching his stomach.  He probably needed some Gravol and some Tylenol, which was unfortunately something Joe had forgotten to bring.

"Well." Tai said, getting up.  "I guess breakfast is about done.  The sooner we hit the trail, the sooner we'll get to Echo Lake."

TK nodded.  "And the sooner we can save Kari and get Matt to a doctor."

"Right." Izzy stated, packing up his laptop.

*     *     *

The trek to Echo Lake was taken at a snail's pace.  This time Tai and Izzy supported Matt between them.  Every few steps forward, he would stumble, he even blacked out once.  If Tai wasn't convinced that Darknessmon and his partnermons in evil crime would attack a lone digidestined, he would have found a nice cave somewhere and tucked their injured friend in there nice and safe until they had finished defeating the evil ones and had Kari rescued.  But if Tai had learned one thing while adventuring through the digital world, it was never to underestimate your enemy.  They had lost so many friends during their first visits by the hands of Myotismon and the Dark Masters.  He wasn't going to let anyone hurt a single member of his team ever again.

Mimi knelt by the river to fill her water bottle and approached Tai.  "Hold on a minute, it's time for a drink, Matt."

Matt took the bottle and tipped some back.

Tai's eyes narrowed.  "Now you're not planning to throw up on me, are you?" He was grinning nervously.

"A little payback?" Matt inquired with an innocent expression.  "Don't worry Tai, I know that you've got the wussiest gag reflex on the planet.  If I threw up on you, you'd puke your guts out all over me, and unfortunately, you ate like a pig at breakfast."

"I did not." Tai stated indignantly, and then thought it over.  "Well okay, maybe I did.  Can we get on with our journey here?  The day isn't exactly getting any longer you know."

Izzy studied their surroundings critically.  "I think I can hear the waterfall, if I'm not mistaken, Echo Lake should be just around the bend."

TK took the lead, wearing Patamon on top of his white bucket-hat.  "Just how big is this bend anyway?"

"Not very big." Tentomon twittered, buzzing up beside them.  "I can smell the lake water from here already."

Mimi rolled her eyes; "We're walking right beside a stream, Tentomon, that's why you smell water."

"Hey, there it is." TK said grinning as they rounded the bend; just like Izzy said.  It wasn't a huge lake, they could see the shore all the way around from the point of the waterfall.  The calm water was a shimmering reflection of the blue cloudless sky.  The beach sands were almost as white as fresh snow, and the pastoral green hills surrounding the lake valley protectively looked too beautiful to waste on five banished digimon.  "Wow, this place looks like a postcard."

"Maybe after we defeat the five evil ones, we could talk Gennai into letting us build a nice summer house here." Mimi suggested, her bright starry brown eyes dancing with hope.

They made their way to the beach and sat down to rest.

"So why do you think they call it Echo Lake?" Sora asked, drawing a heart in the sand with a little piece of smooth broken driftwood.

Mimi reached over and added some flowers and initials with her fingertip.

Palmon looked at it with confusion.  "I heart M…"

"Palmon!" Mimi shrieked, smothering her hand over the sand and erasing the evidence.  Her cheeks were even pinker than her hair.

"M what, Mimi?" Tai snickered.  "Like I even have to ask?"

"Myself." She stated quickly, her eyes narrowing.  "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No." Tai said.  "No one ever went to jail for loving themselves." He grinned knowingly.  _Quick thinking, Mimi._

"Who couldn't love Mimi?" Palmon said smiling, using her vines to wrap around Sora's discarded piece of driftwood so she could write her own:  I heart Mimi.

Joe picked up a smooth flat stone and winged it into the lake.  It skipped four times before disappearing under the rippling clear water.

"Nice throw." Matt said from beside him, leaning contently against Gabumon.

"I could do better." Tai said lazily from his recumbent position beside Agumon.

TK stood up and scanned the shore of the lake.  "Tai, he skipped it four times.  Do you want to put your money where your mouth is?"

Tai rolled over onto his stomach and propped his head up on his hands.  "Maybe later.  Izzy, we are at Echo Lake, so now what?  Do we wait for the next Talisman to come out from hiding and bite us?"

"I don't know!" Izzy shouted.  _Know, know, know_.  He paused at the reverberations of his own voice.  "Prodigious!" _Prodigious, prodigious, prodigious_.  "Well, I guess I just figured out why they call it Echo Lake." He smiled smugly.

Tai buried his head in his hands.  "Well there goes any hope of us sneaking in quietly.  Thanks a lot Izzy.  And I thought _you_ were supposed to be the _smart_ one."

Izzy flushed.  "Well I'm smarter than _you_, or you wouldn't always be asking _me_ to enlighten you about everything in the digital world.

"Would you guys quit that!" Sora and Joe yelled in perfect unison.  _Quit that, quit that, quit that_.

TK was laughing.  "Hey, that sounds fun.  Yodalay-hee-hoo!"  _Yodalay-hee-hoo, yodalay-hee-hoo, yodalay-hee-hoo_.

Tai groaned.  "You guys." He whined.  "You are just begging for us to get attacked by evil Acolytemon right here and now!" _Now, now, now_.

Matt perked up.  "Wow, the acoustics in this valley are excellent."

"Now don't you start too." Sora whispered.  

Matt's face fell.  "Okay, but when this is all over, I'm bringing my bass down here."

"And plug it into what?" Tai reminded him sarcastically.

"Whatever." Matt responded.  "Hey Tai, why don't you do something useful for a change and get out your pocket telescope and see if you can find the next temple.  If you find it before Izzy, you can gloat about it for the next three months."

Tai's mouth opened and closed a few times before he actually came up with something to say.  "Huh.  I don't gloat.  I never gloat." He pulled out his telescope.  Darn that Matt for thinking of this great idea before he did!  "And just so you know, I'm only doing this because I don't have anything better to do." He scanned the beach and tried focusing across the lake.  "N…othing.  No, wait a minute.  There is a big ugly gray…"

"Monster?" Joe asked, looking around fearfully.

"Castle." Tai said with a smirk.  "And it's real close." He grinned smugly.  He gave Matt a hand.  "Okay, time to get up, Lazybones."

Matt arched an eyebrow.  "Aw come on mom, five more minutes?"

"Ha ha, very funny."

Sora, Mimi, Palmon and Biyomon took the lead this time, the sand made it difficult to walk.  The gentle sounds of the water lapping the shore made it pleasant enough though.

They crossed a rickety wooden drawbridge with blackened chains over a small gorge and entered the crumbling courtyard.

"Looks deserted." The little white digimon with the purple markings and orange hair said, eyeing the castle walls covered in thick vines of ivy.

Joe took his glasses off and wiped them on his shirt.  "Great Gomomon, whenever someone says something like that, all heck breaks loose." He put his glasses on nervously.  "This place is not creeping me out.  This place is not…"

"Would you cut that out, Joe?  You are creeping ME out!" Mimi whispered loudly, slapping him on the arm.

"Owww." Joe moaned.  "You didn't have to hit me."

"Will you guys please be quiet?" Tai said through gritted teeth.  "We've already advertised we're here.  What do you want to do, send the evil digimon an engraved invitation to come get us?"

"Tai, you are talking in clichés again." Sora chided softly.

"So sue me."

"Tai."

"Okay, okay.  Hey, can anyone see an entrance in all that stupid ivy overgrowth?" Tai asked, getting back to business.

Izzy looked closely.  "Right ahead of us.  Maybe we can cut through."

"Allow me." Agumon said, stepping ahead of them.  "Pepper breath!  Poi." A small ball of fire flew out of the little orange dinosaur-like digimon's mouth and disintegrated the vines.

"Alright Agumon." Tai grinned.  "That was awesome.  Now let's go inside."

Patamon flew in first, with TK right behind him.  The little orange rookie with bat-like wings sneezed.

"Bless you." TK said, letting his finger trail along a ledge thoughtfully, a cloud of dust following in its wake.

"This place needs a visit by the business end of a vacuum cleaner." Mimi said, before erupting into a fit of lady-like sneezes.  Soon everyone was doing it, as if it were contagious.

"Oh my head." Matt moaned pathetically.  "I don't feel very good, I think I'd better sit down." He said as his knees buckled.

"A-choo!" Sora sneezed again.

"Wow, thirteen." Tai said, clearly impressed, trying to keep Matt up.  "Thirteen is an unlucky number Sora, you'd better do one more." He grunted.

"Tai, will you please keep your mind focused on not dropping Matt?" Izzy gasped with exertion.  "Come on Matt, this is _not_ the time to be zoning out.  This place is too dirty to set you down."

Matt groaned.  "I'm okay, just give me a second."

Joe was still sneezing.  "I'b nod.  This dusd is messig ub by subuses.  Cab be go dow?" Sniff, sniff, sneeze.  "Ahhh."

"Ew Joe, did you have to sneeze in my direction?" Mimi wailed, wiping off her bare arm as she joined him and they headed down the dimly lit corridor.

"Sorry Bibi."

"Shhh." Tai whispered loudly.  He did not like the way their footsteps were echoing so badly.  The whole place reminded him of some creaky old museum.

"Brrr.  It's kind of chilly in here." Sora remarked, rubbing her bare arms.

"Yeah." Mimi agreed quietly.

They trudged along until the corridor opened into a large even dustier room.  There were several blocks arranged on the wall opposite them, and two other doors on the adjacent walls leading out.  The ceiling had to be at least twenty feet high, with barred windows around the circumference of the room about every three feet within the top four feet of the room to the ceiling.  The slight sunlight filtering in shone eerily against the massive cobwebs draping down, floating gently on the nonexistent breeze.

"Hey." Tai said grinning hugely as they approached the blocks on the wall.  "What do you think these are?"

Matt glanced around the room.  "The next Talisman is in here." He stated.  "It's yours Izzy." He studied the wall with a frown.  "Wisdom."

Izzy perked up.  "I wonder what we have to do to get it?  There's no place to hide it, where could it be?"

"Someplace where you'll never find it." A haunting voice from the right hand door said.

They all turned to witness the red fog curling into the room.  The tall blue haired female of the evil ones stepped out of the haze.  She was flanked by four panting little Acolytemon.

"Step aside, Lady." Tai exclaimed.  "We don't want to hurt you…  much.  Now where is my sister?" He growled.  Agumon was advancing a step.  "You don't scare us, you don't even have any powers.  Why even bother meeting up with us?"

Sorceryladydevimon's eyes glowed red.  "I may not possess power here and now, but you have tasted a small sliver of our united abilities.  I am here only to protect the Talisman of Wisdom." She laughed icily.  "Besides, I have brought my faithful little Acolytemon to do battle with you.  Unlike me, they do have the power to destroy you, here and now."

"Ha.  You may not realize this, but we have already met with, tangled with and defeated all the Acolytemon that Poisonmegamon could throw at us." Tai exclaimed.

Sorceryladydevimon smirked at the group.  "Are you waiting for a standing ovation?  Acolytemon attack!"

"Digivolve!" Tai yelled as the room exploded into chaos.  The rookie level digimon except for Patamon and Gatomon were surrounded with blue light as they transformed to champion with the powerful hum of six digivices in unison.  The Acolytemon were momentarily stunned from the flashing lights.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon hurled a ball of fire towards the evil digimon as if they were bowling pins.

The Acolytemon were glowing red and dodging the large orange with navy blue striped dinosaur-like digimon with the tri-horned helmet's attack easily.  One aimed a burst of the red transparent energy in Sora, Mimi and Joe's direction.

Garurumon leapt in the way and aimed a fast, hard howling blaster attack that took out the stream, dispersing the deadly energy into tiny fading sparkling particles.

"That was too close." Sora gasped, clutching Mimi's hand.

Ikkakumon positioned himself in front of Tai, Matt and Izzy.  "Harpoon Torpedo!" He growled, attacking the two Acolytemon who were skittering towards the three boys at an alarming speed.  They dodged and fired, but their aim was off target and their red energy bursts hit the wall beside them.

"Look out!" Tai yelled as the pieces of stone started crumbling away.

"No!"  Sorceryladydevimon yelled angrily.  "You IMBECILES!"

"Huh?" Tai, Matt and Izzy said in unison.  She sounded too angry to be mad that they had ducked and did not get vaporized right away.

Izzy turned his head as a flash of gold light caught his eye's peripheral vision.  "Prodigious." He said softly.

"What?" Tai demanded, swinging around.  "Huh?  What's that?  A story?" The wall had crumbled, revealing a solid gold plaque underneath with several verses on it.

"That's it." Matt whispered.  "A riddle.  Izzy, solve the riddle and the Talisman of Wisdom will be yours."

Izzy stared at the words and recited them slowly:

"_As I was walking to Digimudopolis,_

_I met a Digimon with thirteen friends._

_every friend had thirteen carts,_

_every cart had thirteen dogs,_

_Every dog had thirteen fleas._

_Fleas, dogs, carts and friends;_

_how many were going to Digimudopolis?_"

"I hope you've been brushing up on your thirteen times tables." Tai said, wiping his brow.  He was glad this was not his test.  He could go as high as the ten times tables, then he had to start using his fingers/toes/calculators and abacus.

Kabuterimon zapped the two Acolytemon who were sneaking up on the three.  "Electroshocker!"

Tai turned around in surprise.  There were at least a dozen of the little black troll-like Acolytemon in the dusty chamber now joining the fray.  Sorceryladydevimon stood to the side with a grimace of distain on her face, her eyes were glued to the gold plaque.

Togemon started her spinning needle spray dance, warding off two of the Acolytemon approaching TK.  "Digi-Armor, energize!" TK said, holding up his D3 device.

"Patamon armor digivolve to…  Pegasusmon."

"There are too many of them." Sora exclaimed as she watched Birdramon attack four Acolytemon near the left hand door.  As soon as they were defeated, six more appeared almost as if from out of nowhere at the door to the right.  "We're going one step forward and taking two steps back."

"Now who's talking in clichés?" Tai muttered under his breath.  "Come on Izzy, don't you have it figured out yet?  We'd sort of like to get out of here today and in one piece, you know." A droplet of sweat rolled down the side of Tai's cheek as he watched the numbers of the Acolytemon increase.  "This is nuts, where are they all coming from?"

Izzy glared at Tai in annoyance.  "Would you please stop screaming in my ear?  I am trying to concentrate here.  Hmm.  Thirteen squared is one hundred sixty-nine, okay, that's friends and carts, times thirteen dogs is two thousand one hundred ninety-seven, right?"

Tai's face was agitated.  "You're asking me?"

"Two thousand one hundred ninety-seven dogs times thirteen fleas is…  twenty-eight thousand five hundred and sixty-one." Izzy continued.  Tai was not the only one sweating.

"Okay, now what?" Tai asked.  "Oh no, here comes another bunch of those creeps." He whirled around to look for help as the Acolytemon started to charge up, glowing red.  "Greymonnnn!"

Greymon nova blasted the four spindly Acolytemon who were pestering him and quickly turned to face his panic stricken digidestined.

"Tai!" He'd never make it!

A bright strobe-light effect exploded from Tai's pocket, along with a loud buzzing song.  "What's that?" Tai jumped.  _Please don't let it be a big digi-bug_!

"The Talisman." Matt said, watching as the strobe light appeared to engulf Greymon.  Everyone in the room stopped to watch.

"Greymon zipdigivolve to Dynamogreymon!" The voice of Greymon grew deeper and his appearance grew fiercer.  He was bigger and had golden spikes coming out of his back.  His tri-horned brown helmet was now gold, and his tail was covered in sharp spikes.

"Holy cow!" Tai exclaimed, pulling out his Talisman.  "He's at a new level!"

"Incinerator Attack!" Dynamogreymon said fiercely, breathing a white-hot continuous flame from his jaws at the Acolytemon in his wake.

Sorceryladydevimon's eyes popped open as she witnessed her followers disintegrating before her very eyes.  A dense red fog curled around her.

"Quick Dynamogreymon.  She's  going to get away!" TK yelled, pointing at the quickly dissipating red cloud.  Sorceryladydevimon was gone.  Dynamogreymon's incinerator attack blasted the final lingering Acolytemon to smithereens.  The digimon dedigivolved and the chamber grew quiet except for Izzy's mumbling.

"Thirteen plus one hundred sixty-nine is…  carry the one…  one hundred eighty-two.  Plus two thousand one hundred ninety-seven is…  two thousand three hundred seventy-nine.  Plus twenty-eight thousand five hundred sixty-one is…  thirty thousand nine hundred and forty."

"So that's it?" Tai asked.

Izzy nodded.  "That's my answer, but now I don't know what to do with it."

Tentomon was studying the wall.

"Maybe you have to yell it out really loudly." Tai suggested, shifting slightly.  "Gee Matt, you're starting to get heavy."

"I'll take him." Mimi perked up.  Sora hurriedly took the other side.

"Thanks." Matt smiled with a wink.  "I was wondering when you two would finally get a turn.

"Behave yourself Matt." Sora laughed.

"You guys." Tai growled.  "We need to stay focused here."

Tentomon cleared his throat.  "What do you suppose these blocks on the wall are for anyway?"

"I don't know." Gabumon stated, also staring at the mystery.  "Matt, have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Izzy came closer and blew some dust away from the first block, then the second block.  "Oh prodigious!" He exclaimed, quickly clearing the dust from the rest of the blocks with his shirtsleeve.  "These blocks are like rudimentary computer keys.  You probably push the blocks with your answer." There were ten blocks ranging from zero to nine.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Tai demanded, fidgeting nervously with the hem of his t-shirt.

Izzy let out a frustrated sigh.  "Tai, I want to be sure before I do anything.  What if there is only one chance and I mess it up?" He looked closely at the blocks.  "Hmm.  It looks like each block can only be pressed once." He scratched his head.  "Thirty thousand nine hundred and forty has two zeros." He double-checked his calculations.  No, he was right.  "Oh, I get it." He slapped his head.  "I forgot to add the digimon.  That would be thirty thousand nine hundred and forty-one." He sighed in relief and was about to press the three stone.

"Whud aboud I?" Asked Joe, sniffing as he pushed up his glasses.  He came up to the gold plaque.  "Thad would maig id thirdy thousadd bibe hudred add fordy-two, ride?"

Izzy frowned.  "Er…  yeah.  Maybe I ought to reread it." He mumbled, letting his eyes rescan the plaque.  "Ooh.  It's a trick."

"A what?" Tai asked.

"The answer is one.  It doesn't say anyone is going to Digimudopolis except for _me_.  _I _just met all those characters who were probably just roadside attractions while on _my _way to Digimudopolis." Izzy explained, pressing the stone with the number 'one' on it.

The stone went all the way into the wall and the plaque clicked open like a wall safe.  Izzy reached in and brought out a creamy green stone roughly the same size and shape as Tai's inlayed in the same silver sheath on a silver chain.

"Oh look, now Izzy has a necklace too." Tai smirked.

"Say Mimi, I've always thought men with necklaces were pretty cool.  What do you think?" Sora asked the pink haired fashion expert.

Mimi pondered.  "Actually Sora, now that you've mentioned it, all the really cool guys in New York City have been wearing them."

Tai and Izzy looked at each other—shrugged--and placed their chains around their necks, slipping the Talismans under their shirts.  If Mimi said it was cool, who was going to argue?

TBC…


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer:  I do not own Digimon or Palm Pilot.

A/N:  Many thanks to Matt4ever, Reion, chibi Nataly and miaow227 for your kind reviews of chapter 4.  You are all wonderful!  Sorry it took sooooo long to update (the next update will be up much much faster).  Chapter 5 is dedicated to you guys!  Hope it's worth the wait.  ^_^.  Long live Matt!

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 5

By Fenris5000—Angelica

Joe and Gomomon followed Tai and Agumon out of the dusty castle gratefully.  He could already feel his sinuses going back to normal.  Thank goodness.

Tai was babbling incessantly.  "So Agumon, I can't believe you've got a new level.  I figured since we didn't have crests anymore or Azulongmon's power, that you wouldn't be able to get past champion.  Wow, and now that you've got a Talisman Izzy, that means Tentomon can probably zipdigivolve too."

Izzy was nodding thoughtfully with a pleased expression on his face.  "Right Tai.  I can't wait to see it.  I'll bet it will be prodigious."

"Hey Tentomon, do you think you could give us a little sneak peak at your zipdigivolve level?" Tai asked the little red bug like digimon hopefully.

Tentomon shrugged.  "I'd be glad to Tai, only if I knew how.  I am kind of curious to see it myself." He twittered, buzzing beside the big haired boy.

"Well, we wouldn't want to force anything anyway." Izzy remarked.  "Personally, I wouldn't want to meet Skullkabuterimon."

Tai shrugged.  "Yeah, I guess you're right.  I wonder if the Talismans always have to be triggered as if we are in danger before they activate or is there another trick that we'll have to figure out."

"Maybe Matt knows." Izzy said with a raised eyebrow.

"Matt?" Tai repeated.  "And how would he know?"

Izzy shrugged.  "I don't know, but don't you think it's kind of weird that when we are in the vicinity of the new Talisman, he informs us who it's for and what it represents?"

"Well, I just thought it was a coincidence." Tai admitted, looking over his shoulder at the subject of their whispered conversation, still being supported by Sora and Mimi.  The blond looked like his walking was getting better, and he looked like he was enjoying himself.  "Humph.  We should have let Sora and Mimi have their way with him in the first place, he'd probably be back to top form already." He mumbled.

TK, Gatomon and Patamon who were in the lead stopped as TK reached for his Palm Pilot.

"What's going on?" Tai asked.

"I've got an e-mail from Davis and Yolei." TK explained with a smile.  "They say the whole gang is ready to join us.  Ken and Cody are even fully recovered, well except for the er…  chicken-measles scabs."

"Chicken-measles." Izzy laughed.  "Davis must have written that one."

"Well tell them to hurry up." Tai exclaimed.  "And tell them to bring a wagon or something that we can put Matt in."

"Well technically Tai, if they can get the gate open from their side, maybe we could send Matt right through." Izzy stated excitedly.  "Oh I hope this works.  I can't believe I didn't think of e-mailing them myself."

Sora patted Izzy's shoulder.  "It's okay Izzy, it's been a pretty intense day.  The digiport didn't work, so why would we expect e-mail to work?"

Izzy shrugged.  "Thanks Sora, but as a scientist, its usually my prerogative to test every theory before making assumptions."

"What is taking them so long?" Tai complained as he started to pace impatiently.  "I hope this works."

TK frowned.  "Oh no." He read the new message on the screen.  "It didn't work.  They can't even get the gate to open on the main land.  There is some kind of electrical disturbances originating from Ash Island that is interfering with the digiport." He looked up abruptly.  "It's been cut off."

"Cut off?" Tai repeated, his voice rising with agitation.  "How cut off?  Who cut off?  Why cut off?" He turned to Izzy.

Izzy flipped open his laptop and tried accessing his e-mail messenger program.  "Okay, it let me in.  Let's see if I can get a message to Gennai." He typed rapidly and hit the send icon, crossing his fingers.

ERROR.  MESSAGE NOT SENT.  PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SERVER.

He looked up with haunted eyes.  "Well guys, I'd say we are really on our own this time."

Gatomon tugged gently on TK's shirt.  "Maybe you could try e-mailing Kari.  The interference may originate on Ash Island, but maybe it doesn't affect communications on Ash Island."

"That's a great idea Gatomon." TK said nodding.  "We can ask her if she's doing okay and give her a bit of a progress report."

"If she even has her Palm Pilot." Matt reminded him softly.  "And if she does have it, what's going to stop her from reporting everything we say to Darknessmon and the other Evil Ones?"

Tai's eyes narrowed.  "Just what exactly is it that you are implying, Matt?  Are you saying she would squeal on us?"

Matt sighed in frustration.  "I don't know.  I'm just saying we should be careful, okay?  Kari didn't seem like she was in her right mind.  If we let some vital information slip, she might be obligated to tell her captors and maybe they could use that knowledge against us."

"Kari's strong willed." TK said with conviction.  "She could never be broken like that.  She would never betray any of us."

"And she would certainly _never_ fire a direct attack at any of us either." Sora added sarcastically.  "Come on you two, wake up.  Matt is right.  They've done something to her to make her obey them."

Tai punched a fist into his hand.  "I don't believe that was really Kari."

"Then who was it, Tai?" Mimi demanded.  "She sure looked like Kari to me."

"I think she was a clone.  Kari and her Palm Pilot are being held prisoner in some dungeon somewhere." Tai said gruffly.  "I refuse to believe that my sister is the one who fired on us.  She doesn't have that kind of power.  They cloned her to shock us into not hurting her."

Sora rolled her eyes.  "Tai, that doesn't make any sense."

"So am I e-mailing her or not?" TK asked through gritted teeth.

Izzy closed his laptop.  "Okay, I suggest we try e-mailing her, but don't give anything away.  Just ask her if she's okay.  Maybe try mentioning something that only she would know and we'll see if we get a response.  Then we would know if she's really Kari or if a clone is in possession of her Palm Pilot."

"If the message gets through at all." Joe reminded them, taking a seat next to Gomomon and Gabumon.

"Okay." TK nodded.  "How about this:  Dear Kari, how are you?  We are fine." He made a face.  "That sounds so lame."

"Go on." Izzy prodded.

"Um okay, how about:  That big cut I got from your cat Fluff-O-Matic last week is finally beginning to heal.  Can't wait to see you.  TK."

"Fluff-O-Matic?" Tai repeated.  "We don't have a cat named Fluff-O-Matic."

Izzy smiled patiently.  "That's the point Tai.  If Kari suddenly starts talking about your bogus cat, we'll know she isn't really Kari."

Tai pulled his hair in frustration.  "But what if she thinks we're trying to talk to her in some sort of code?  She might respond just as strangely."

The digidestined and digimon glanced around at each other.  "Just send it TK." Izzy instructed.  "It probably won't go anyway." 

TK hit send and held his breath.  ERROR.  MESSAGE NOT SENT.  PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SERVER.  He groaned.  "After all that, and it wouldn't even go."

"It's probably for the best." Matt shrugged his shoulders.  "There's no harm done, we still have our original plan." He turned to Izzy.  "Where to next Izzy?"

Izzy reopened his laptop and accessed his map program.  "Aha, it looks like our next stop is the Dark Forest."

Mimi shivered.  "It sounds creepy."

"What's creepy about it?" Agumon asked curiously.  "It's a forest and it's dark."

Tai turned to Mimi, who was still supporting Matt's left side.  "He's got you there Mimi."

Mimi made a face at their leader.  "I don't care.  It still sounds creepy to me.  I never did like the dark.  I like big bright shiny malls, okay?"

"Okay, okay, don't have a cow."

The little orange dinosaur-like digimon looked confused.  Biyomon flapped beside him.  "Don't even try to figure that one out Agumon.  It's what the human world calls a figure of speech."

Patamon pouted.  "Why can't humans just say what they mean?"

TK took his white hat off and tried smoothing back his hair.  "I always say exactly what I mean." He plopped his hat back onto his head.  He was just waiting for the day that his hair would start to do what Matt's did.

"You mean every negative thing you've ever said, you meant to hurt someone?" Sora asked, still supporting Matt's right side.

"Of course not." Tai grumbled for the younger blond.  "Now can we get on with the show here?  Kari isn't exactly getting any closer with us just standing here blabbing."

"Okay we're going, we're going." Sora and Mimi chimed together, taking Matt into the lead down the well-trampled lush green grass path that led away from Echo Lake and the castle.  Biyomon fluttered her cotton candy pink wings gently on the breeze just ahead of them.  Gabumon, TK, Patamon and Palmon walked right behind, keeping a wary eye open in case of trouble.

The path took them down into the valley between the small mountains.  Wild flowers dotted the hillsides with every color conceivable to the human eye.  Babbling brooks shimmered under the bright digital sun here and there.

"It's very pretty here." Sora said over her shoulder.  "But it sure seems lonely.  There should be digimon here enjoying it."

Gomomon and Joe were right behind with TK.  "Well we're enjoying it." Gomomon said with a big smile.  "And some of us are Digimon."

Tai, Tentomon, Izzy and Agumon were bringing up the rear.  Tai glanced up at the clear blue sky, shading his eyes against the bright sunshine.  "Looks like it's almost time for lunch." He said as his stomach growled loudly.

"Yeah, I guess we could all use a little rest." Mimi agreed, stopping to look around.

"Can we sit down for a few minutes?" Matt asked uncertainly.  The area looked very picturesque, but he couldn't see a source of food in the vicinity.

Tai shrugged.  "I dunno.  Hey Izz, does your little map program have any other tools besides radar?  Like a food search button or picnic site finder?" It had to be good for something besides showing:  _you are here_.

Izzy opened the case and booted up his laptop.  The map program came on and he clicked his options key.

"A nice restaurant would be good." Mimi suggested, batting her long lashes at the red haired computer expert.  "Or a mall food court.  And while we're there, I could pick up some new shoes.  These ones are starting to make my feet hurt.  If I'd known we were going to be doing this much walking, I would have left these darling _genuine_ Italian leather sandals at home and would have brought my pink track shoes."

"Mimi." Tai mumbled, pulling at his collar.  "We are not going shopping at the mall; so no more mentioning of malls from you."

Matt yawned.  "Can we sit down yet?"

"Eureka." Izzy exclaimed, pointing to a little picnic table icon on his computer.  "Look, a picnic area.  And it's really close.  It has all the facilities we need.  Food, water, a table, and a few points of interest for the kids." He logged off and closed his computer again.

"So which way do we go?" Tai asked excitedly.

"Same way we were going, it should be right around…"

"The bend." TK finished for him.  "Is it just me, or are we always going around some bend or other.  And there is always some evil digimon around the bend too." He took the lead anyway, not really expecting an answer.  Joe, Patamon and Gomomon joined him.

"Are you girls getting tired of dragging the invalid around yet?" Tai questioned Sora and Mimi as they started to follow.

Sora smiled at their big haired leader.  "It's no problem Tai, unless you're getting jealous of course."

Mimi grinned hugely.  "Yeah Tai, are you starting to get jealous?  You can tell us."

"No." Tai frowned.  "You guys ought to be ashamed of yourselves.  We have to keep our minds focused here.  I just thought you girls might be getting tired, that's all."

"I'm getting tired." Matt said, yawning again.

Sora pinched Matt's cheek playfully.  "Don't worry Tai, I could carry Matt around like this all day."

"Me too." Mimi pinched his other cheek.

"Ow." Matt swatted their hands away from his face.  "Would you guys quit that please?  Only Grandma is allowed to do that."

"Aw Matt, come on, we're just trying to have a little fun." Sora said as they started off, following Tai, Izzy, Gabumon and Agumon.

Palmon pinched her own cheek.  "Ouch!  What's so fun about pinching your cheek anyway?" She had a disappointed expression on her face.  Mimi and Sora seemed to think it was fun?  Maybe they had a different idea of fun than the digimon.

The children and digimon started to walk around the bend, chatting quietly amongst themselves.  As they walked further, there was suddenly a large row of tall dark green trees set up as if it were a fence keeping them out.  Tai walked up to the nearest trees and peered between the trunks.

"Izzy, what is this?" He asked, jerking a thumb at one of the trees.

Izzy tilted his head.  "Well, at a guess, I'd say it's a Douglas fir."

Tai rolled his eyes.  "I can see it's a tree Izzy, I mean, you never mentioned this dense pile of trees when you were informing us about how easy it would be to get to our picnic site.

The computer genius shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly with a patient sigh.  "Tai, what part of the _Dark Forest_ did you not understand?  Obviously if we are entering a forest area, there are going to be some trees showing up."

"Otherwise they would have called it the Dark Canyon, or the Dark Vegetable Garden." Gomomon said cheerily from beside Joe.

"Har har." Tai said, folding his arms across his chest with a pout.  "I don't see a trail anywhere.  Do we go around the forest or cut our own path?"

"Well Tai, I'd have to say we need to cut a trail because our picnic site is a little ways into your forest here." Izzy said scratching his head.

"Could we sit down now?" Matt asked.

"Okay." Tai said nodding.  "We are going into the Dark Forest.  We need someone brave to cut our trail."

Agumon started jumping up and down, waving his little orange arms.  "Oh me!  Me!  Please pick me.  I can blaze a trail."

Gabumon was right beside him.  "I can help too.  I have never blazed a trail before, but I am positive I could do it."

"My lightening paw is at your service." Gatomon said, joining the other two.

"Okay then, what are we waiting for, guys?  You three take the point.  The rest of us will follow."

Gatomon led the group into the forest; the grass was long and cool against their feet and legs.

"That tickles." Mimi giggled, swatting away some of the grass.

"You know Mimi, you were right." Sora said as they maneuvered sideways to get between a couple of closely spaced trees.  "This place is kind of creepy." She wasn't claustrophobic, but walking amidst the dense foliage of the forest gave her a little tingling feeling between her shoulder blades.  "I sure hope the whole forest isn't this close."  She said quietly.

Mimi glanced at Matt.  "You're awful quiet today.  Are you doing okay?"

He nodded with a small smile.  "I'm just tired."

"I hope we get to that picnic site soon." Sora whispered.  "No offense Matt, but you're starting to get heavy." She readjusted her arm under his shoulder and around his back.

"Sorry." He muttered faintly.  "Just tired."

Mimi tightened her grip as she felt Matt sag when his knees buckled.  "Hold on Sora, I think he's zoning out again." She lifted his chin up with her free hand.

"Is he okay?" Palmon and Biyomon caught up as Sora and Mimi stopped.

"I don't know." Mimi said.  "Maybe you guys should go get Tai and the others.  I don't think they even noticed we're not following them anymore." She looked around nervously.

Sora watched as Biyomon fluttered off in the direction the others had gone.  "Should we wait for the others or lay him down here?" She asked, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably.

"Let's put him down.  I don't know how much longer I can handle this." Mimi grunted.  "Tai is going to rub this in soooo bad." 

"Matt?" Sora tapped him on the cheek.  "Are you awake?" His eyes were closed and his head was leaning on her shoulder.

"Mm?"

They eased him down into the grass and sat down on either side of him to wait.  "It sure is taking them long enough." Mimi snorted.  "Do you think they actually were that far ahead of us?"

"Well I'd rather it was that than they were attacked by a pack of Acolytemon." Sora admitted, fidgeting nervously.

A snapping noise, followed by some grunting caught their attention.

"Please let it just be Tai.  Please let it just be Tai." Mimi chanted with her eyes tightly shut and her fingers and toes all crossed.

Sora tried to see beyond the trees.  Her eyes lingered briefly at a spot where the bushes seemed to be shaking.  Two glowing red eyes were there, then gone.

"H…  hello?  Is a…a…anybody there?" She asked in a quavering voice.  Her hands were suddenly cold and sweaty as she realized that whoever or whatever was out there, was not going to give her an answer.

"Please let it just be Tai." Mimi was on the verge of panicked tears.  Her eyes were now wide open and she was staring at the blackness beyond the trees.  "Something is out there." She whimpered.

Palmon struck a defensive pose, watching as well.  What was taking Biyomon so long to get the others?  Were they all captured?  She caught a quick flash of red eyes, and then they were gone.  Had she imagined it?

Mimi shrieked.

All the bushes were shaking now, and the red eyes were no longer just fleeting phantoms; the grunting was louder too.

"Palmon digivolve!" Mimi cried out, reaching for Matt's left arm.  Sora already had his right arm over her shoulder and was getting ready to stand up.  

"Palmon digivolve to…  Togemon!" The dainty little flower-like digimon transformed into the large formidable cactus-like digimon wearing big brown boxing gloves.  "Go, I'll be right behind you!" Togemon shouted.

"But what if they're in front of us too?" Sora asked fearfully, backing up and turning the trio.  "We can't go anywhere.  We're surrounded!"

The Acolytemon came out of hiding; their sharp fangs were abnormally bright in the subdued light that filtered through the trees.

"Chaos force!" One of the Acolytemon glowed a smoky blue and aimed a spindly arm at them; the black claws were jagged and extended.  A wall of power rippled from the claws and blasted into Togemon and the three digidestined she was sworn to protect.  The force knocked the four down at the feet of three other Acolytemon who were charging with the same smoky blue power, getting ready to attack.

The claws extended…

"Nooooo!" Sora and Mimi wailed in perfect unison.

"Nova blast!" A deep voice growled from behind the attacking Acolytemon as an orange fireball hit them from the rear, disintegrating the threat.

Tears were blurring Mimi's vision.  She wiped them away with the back of her hand smiling.  "I don't think I have _ever_ heard sweeter words."

"Greymon!" Sora cheered as the huge orange digimon stomped through the trees, pushing two over to make some room.  Kabuterimon, Ikkakumon and Pegasusmon came in from the other three points.

"Electroshocker!" Kabuterimon shouted, charging and releasing a blast of power almost in the same instant, taking out two more.

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon stormed, launching his own attack.  The two Acolytemon he fired at plowed into the tree behind them and disappeared.  The tree made a cracking sound and fell with a boom.

Pegasusmon reared up on his hind legs and came down with a crash.  "Star shower!"  He aimed a blast of starbursts towards the rest of the Acolytemon and zapped them out of existence.  More Acolytemon took their place.

Tai and TK ran into their little clearing as the digimon battled on.

"Are we ever glad to see you guys." Sora said quickly getting up as the boys grabbed Matt.

"Don't thank us yet." Tai muttered.  "This whole forest is crawling with these ugly little freaks.  Joe and Izzy are at the picnic site waiting.  It's a good size clearing, we should be able to make our stand in there." He looked over his shoulder as they left the fight.  "Togemon, you take the lead.  Greymon, finish them off and get out of there!"

Ikkakumon, Kabuterimon, and Pegasusmon blasted a few more shots at the rapidly diminishing number of Acolytemon and backed out of the clearing to follow and protect the digidestined's rear.

The group ran as well as they could through the obstacle studded forest.  A light at the end of the forest corridor beckoned to them like a lifeline.

"Straight ahead." Tai puffed unnecessarily.

They burst through into the clearing Tai had told them about.  It looked deserted.  All that was there were a few structures.  A marble fountain with a statue of an Angel with its head down and wings lowered, and a pristine white gazebo with blood red roses growing and entwining the lattice.

Joe's head poked up from the gazebo.  "Oh it's you." He let out a shaky breath as the rest of the digidestined joined him and Izzy inside.  "It took you long enough.  We were beginning to think you all got yourselves captured."

Biyomon fluttered to Sora.  "Oh Sora, I'm so glad you're safe." She said.

Sora nodded, rubbing her bruised arm.  "Well, we can thank Greymon for that.  I don't know how many of those chaos force attacks we could have handled.  One knocked all four of us on our butts."

Gabumon and Gatomon stiffened beside Tai, TK and Matt.

"Someone's coming." Gatomon growled, her fur standing up on end.

"Oh no." Joe moaned.

Matt was leaning against the wall looking tired.  "One of the Talismans is here." He said softly, closing his eyes.

Tai peered through the lattice to see Greymon, Kabuterimon, Ikkakumon, Togemon, and Pegasusmon preparing for battle.  "Okay, here comes one of those evilmons.  Which one is it?  I can't even remember."

Izzy poked his head around the corner quickly.  The black skinned creature in the coal black cloak with the long saber tooth-type fangs was so close Izzy could even see the red symbol that was tattooed to its head.  The red head pulled back inside, breathing quickly.  "That is Chaosdevimon." He informed their leader, sweating slightly.  "His Acolytemon possess his power chaos force.  Basically it's a blast of energy.  It _can _destroy its target if concentrated."

Mimi shivered.  "Is it just me, or is this rescue mission getting scarier and scarier?  If Greymon had not come when he did, do you mean to tell me that Sora, Matt, Togemon and I could have been killed?"

Izzy looked at Tai, then at Mimi.  "Yes." He said simply.

"Gabumon, digivolve!" Matt instructed.

"Biyomon.  Digivolve!" Sora added.

The gazebo was filled with light as the digivolving process transpired.

Garurumon, Birdramon and Gatomon burst out of the gazebo to join the other champion level digimon already locked in combat with the Acolytemon.  The clearing they had hoped would be to their advantage was quickly filling up with the spiny black troll digimon.  Most of them were glowing that smoky blue color.

"Go Greymon!" Tai shouted over the battle, watching his large orange and navy striped digimon hurl a nova blast at the wall of advancing Acolytemon.

The rippling air effect caused by the chaos force attack started to surge towards the gazebo as three of the enemies extended their claws.

Mimi ducked, hiding her head in her arms.  "Aaaiii, I can't watch!  We're going to die!" 

Garurumon and Birdramon leapt up and desperately hit the wall with their attacks.

"Howling blaster!" The ice-cold blast of blue liquid-nitrogen like energy exploded from Garurumon's powerful jaws.

"Meteor wing!" Birdramon bellowed as she hurled a wing full of fireballs at the chaos force.

The blast shook the gazebo, but did not hit it, instead the wavering wall of energy surged into the forest, knocking down a line of trees.  The ground shook as the trees fell.

"Hey, you forgot to yell timber!" Tai shouted cheekily with a smirk.

The rest of the digidestined groaned.

"Electroshocker!" Kabuterimon growled, firing his attack of fierce electric energy at the closest cluster of Acolytemon who were just getting ready to extend their claws.

Ikkakumon Harpoon torpedoed the group just behind that was advancing, taking out about five with the explosion, dissipating the creatures to fine black digidust that was carried off on the same light breeze that made the grass gently sway.

"Destroy them, my Acolytes!" Chaosdevimon commanded, raising both black-clawed hands into the air.  The red sign on his black head glowed with malice.  "They must not have the third Talisman!" His voice boomed, hurting the digidestined's ears.

Sora had her hands over her ears as she watched fearfully.  "That red thing on his head.  What does it mean?"

They all turned to Izzy who was urgently banging away at his keyboard.  His eyes narrowed.  "How am I supposed to know?  It's shaped like an impaled triangle.  Maybe he hates geometry.  Maybe it's some ancient Digimon symbol for doom.  I don't know.  There is only so much that my laptop can do."

"You _can_ hack into a military satellite, and you _can't_ figure out the meaning of one measly little symbol?" Tai asked incredulously.  "My impression of you has just gone way down. "

"Uh, I think we have a bit more to be concerned about than an ancient symbol here." TK said weakly, watching the fight.  He pointed a finger.  "Um, there are more Acolytemon.  And our digimon haven't eaten for a while.  This can't go on indefinitely."

"We need to zipdigivolve." Tai said, biting his lower lip, trying to stay calm.  "If only we knew how to do it."

Matt opened his eyes and cleared his throat.  "Make a wish." He said simply.

"What?" Tai demanded.

"A miracle." Matt continued.  "They say a miracle is a wish the heart makes.  Your Talisman is a heart, remember?"

Tai and Izzy glanced at each other uncertainly.

"Oh for goodness sakes you two." Sora cried.  "What harm could it do?" She watched as Togemon got hit with a smoky blue chaos force and dedigivolved back to Palmon.  "Hurry, they can't last much longer!"

"Palmon!" Mimi shrieked and leapt up to run outside to rescue her weakened rookie level digimon.

Joe grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back.  "No Mimi, you might get hurt!" He pulled the sobbing girl into a tight comforting embrace.  "Come on you two."

"I'm trying, okay?" Tai snarled.  "I wish.  I wish Greymon would zipdigivolve." He watched Greymon continue fighting.  "Matt it isn't working.  I knew you were full of it!"

"You have to be sincere." Matt said in an annoyed tone.

"I'm _Courage_.  If you want _Sincere_, talk to Mimi!" Tai exploded.  "I can't do it.  I wish I could."

TK grabbed Tai's arm, hard.  "What about Kari?" He demanded.

Tai froze.  The Talisman of strength around his neck began to flash like a strobe light.  The same effect had surrounded Greymon.

"Greymon zipdigivolve to Dynamogreymon!" The larger, fiercer digimon growled as the strobe faded.

Izzy's Talisman of wisdom began to buzz and flash a microsecond later, engulfing Kabuterimon the same as Greymon.

"Kabuterimon zipdigivolve to Kinetickabuterimon!" The large blue spindly form of Kabuterimon morphed into the giant metallic blue and silver version of himself.  His wings were long silver blades that hummed like Excalibur in the air.  He had deep blue spikes down his back and a long sharp silver claw extended at the top of each wrist.

"Prodigious." Izzy stated slowly, in awe.

"Awesome!" Tai said, his eyes were glowing as he watched Kinetickabuterimon glide in for the attack.

"Galvanic zapper!" Kinetickabuterimon belted out, unleashing his new attack.  A wide sizzling white blast of energy erupted from the metallic blue and silver digimon, searing a path through the now panicking black troll digimon, annihilating everything in its path.

Dynamogreymon breathed his incinerator attack towards the frontline Acolytemon, relieving the rest of the champion level digimon of their shield duty.

The digidestined watched from inside the gazebo, cheering silently as the tide of the battle started to turn in their favor.

"Look, they're retreating!" Tai said, doing a victory dance.  "Yes!  We beat them.  Again.  Alright!  Who's the mon?"

Chaosdevimon let out a roar of fury as his army fled.  "You cursed digidestined.  You have won  this fight, but I will soon see you all destroyed." He dematerialized out of existence.

"I hate teleportation." Tai grumbled.

Izzy nodded.  "Although fascinating, it is frustrating when our enemies can just blink themselves out of harms way.  It would be nice to actually defeat one of these Evil Ones before we have to face them all down later on with the Talismans."

"I thought we were supposed to be able to defeat these guys with the Talismans."  Sora complained.  "We have two of them.  We should be able to do some damage, shouldn't we?  She stood up and leaned against the wall of the Gazebo, listening as the clearing became peaceful again.  Their digimon dedigivolved and joined the digidestined as the children stepped out of the white structure.

"Palmon!" Mimi squealed, rushing to her flowery little friend.  "Are you okay?  I was so scared!"

Palmon grinned with sheepish eyes.  "I'm fine.  Can we eat now?  I'm starving."

The rest of the digimon chorused their agreement.

They stopped at the fountain; a few berry bushes were growing around it.

Izzy typed a few things on his laptop, and then looked up with a pleased smirk.  "You will all be glad to know that these berries are not only safe to eat, but they are also an excellent source of vitamin C."

They started gobbling up the berries.  "Hey, these are kind of good." Tai stuffed another handful into his already purple-stained mouth.

Matt was finally standing on his own, studying the fountain as he tried a berry.  He still did not have much of an appetite yet.  There was something about this fountain.  He leaned up against it and peered into the clear water.

Joe came and stood next to him.  Gomomon jumped into the fountain with a splash and started back paddling around.

"There." Matt pointed as the water rippled.  He clutched his head, feeling dizzy.

"What?" Joe asked, looking into the water.  He looked back at the blond chosen child of Friendship curiously.

"The heart Talisman of Endurance." Matt whispered.  "Right there at the bottom.  In the middle, between the marble pillars." He turned from Joe and gently lowered himself to the ground and sat down with his back leaning against the cool stone.  "It's yours if you want it Joe." He suddenly felt too warm.

Joe grimaced.  "It figures.  I've got to get wet to get mine.  There must be some cosmic injustice somewhere, laughing at me."

Gomomon sprayed water at his digidestined.  "Come on in Joe, the water's fine." The little white digimon with orange hair and purple markings jeered with sparkling eyes.  "Since you're all wet now anyways."

Joe took his shoes, socks, bag and glasses off.  "I guess it can't hurt." He squinted into the water.  "How deep would you say it is?" He started hyperventilating with anticipation.

"Deep enough." Tai said, giving the navy-haired child of reliability a push over the side.

The rest of the children and digimon stared into the water to watch their friend's progress.

Joe dove after Gomomon into the cool fountain water.  The pillars went clear to the bottom where the water was somehow pumped up into the Angel statue above.  He squinted ahead.  There was something shiny just near the bottom of the pillars.  What he wouldn't have done for a pair of prescription swimming goggles.  

Gomomon grabbed the chair between his teeth and started back paddling, only to jerk to a halt.  He tried again, then looked forlornly at his digidestined, motioning that he was unable to break it.

Joe quickly took the chair in his fingers and looked for the clasp.  His lungs were starting to burn for air, but he calmly ignored it.  The clasp opened and the relieved digidestined holder of reliability gathered the chain and talisman in his fist before kicking off the bottom of the fountain and following Gomomon to the top.

"Joe!" Sora said with relief when he broke the calm reflective surface with a whooshing breath and a huge spray of water.  "Did you get your talisman?" 

Joe smiled, dangling the deep purple polished stone on the long silver chain from his dripping wet fingers.

TBC…


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer:  I do not own Digimon.

A/N:  Hi Reion, thank you for reviewing chapter 5 ^_^.  I'm glad that you liked it.

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 6

By Fenris5000—Angelica

"Are you dry yet Joe?" Mimi asked as they hiked towards their next destination.  She sipped daintily at her water bottle.

Joe grimaced, wringing out the corner of his cream colored sweater.  A few drops fell onto Palmon's head.

"Hey, I've already been watered today."  She complained.

"Oops, sorry about that." Joe said, his ears turning pink from embarrassment.

Izzy squinted ahead.  "Well look on the bright side Joe.  You won't have to worry about being wet for very long.  We are nearly at the Ebony Desert.  You will dry off in a flash once we get there."

"Say, does anyone know why it's called the Ebony Desert?" Tai asked, flicking a little bug off his arm in annoyance.

Tentomon buzzed beside him.  "I've heard the Ebony Desert is made up of shiny black sand."

"Well that sounds like a logical explanation." Izzy said, rubbing his chin as they continued walking.

Sora made a face.  "Black sand?  That sounds depressing to me."

"I hope it isn't very big." Mimi said with a worried frown.  "I don't want to be spending too much time in any kind of desert, black or white sand.  My skin is very sensitive and I haven't applied moisturizer or sunscreen since we've gotten here."

TK, Matt, Gabumon and Patamon brought up the rear.

"Well I hope it isn't too hot and dry." TK said, looking up at his brother with some concern.  His walking had improved, but Matt's face was flushed and wet with sweat.  "Are you feeling okay, Matt?"

The older blond nodded, bringing his free arm up and wiping his forehead with his sleeve.  "Sure."

"Well there it is." Izzy said, pointing straight ahead.  The Dark Forest ended abruptly, and the black sands began.  The heat waves rippled up from the ground, disappearing into the cloudless blue sky.  The children and digimon approached the anomaly slowly.

"Well, so much for a nice small, cool desert." Joe complained, kicking a rock.  "It looks hot enough to cause some damage." He looked down at Gomomon apprehensively.

His little digimon shrugged.  "You could always carry me if it would make you feel any better, Joe."

Tai studied the obstacle with a frown.  "Is there any way we could possibly go around it?  Maybe avoid it somehow?" He bit his lip in consternation.

Matt shook his head.  "The next Talisman is there almost exactly in the center of the desert.  We have to cross it Tai.  There is no other way."

"Okay, okay.  It was just a thought." Tai replied crossing his arms.  "Okay, before we set foot in that desert, I think we should go through our survival check list first."

Izzy rolled his eyes.  "Tai, we haven't even got a survival check list.  And besides, what happened to:  we don't have the time to waste?"

"Hey, I just want to make sure we get across, okay?  There is nothing more time consuming than falling over from heat exhaustion." He started pacing.  "Okay, so on with the checklist." He paused, furrowing his brow.  "Now what should we do first."

"How much water do we have." Mimi contributed, flashing her big white grin and waving her bottle around.

Tai nodded.  "Yeah, that's a good one Mimi.  Okay, does everybody have water?" He turned to Joe.  "Okay supplies officer.  How much water do we have?"

Joe sneezed.  "Well, I've got three liters in my bag.  Mimi has about half a liter.  If we don't run into any trouble, I'd say we're okay.  I can't see this desert being really huge.  This island isn't all that big after all."

"Point noted." Tai agreed.  He turned to TK.  "How about the invalid.  Do you think he's up for it?"

TK shrugged.

Matt frowned.  "Just eat my dust Kamiya."

"Okay." Tai said, faking a shiver.  "_I'm scared_.  Good!  Food?"

"Energy bars galore." Joe sighed.

"Shelter?"

"Tai, we're going to walk across it, not camp overnight in it." Sora complained, leaning up against the tree behind her.

Izzy nodded.  "In a worst case scenario Tai, we could always feed the digimon and they could carry us across, you know." He sighed as he watched their wild haired leader digest this new information.

Tai's eyes lit up as he snapped his fingers.  "That is a great idea.  But only if we run into trouble." He straightened.  "Okay, I'd say our survival checklist is in awesome form, any objections?"

The rest of the digidestined and all the digimon shook their heads quietly.

"Great, then lets go.  To discover new territories.  Venture forth where no man/digimon has gone before.  Find the next Talisman.  Kick some new evil butt, and go rescue Kari."

"Finally." TK muttered under his breath.  Gabumon took his place at Matt's other side as they followed Tai out of the cool shade of the Dark Forest and stepped into the barren black sand.

"Hmm, it's kind of warm." Mimi commented, kneeling down to touch it.  "It feels just like real sand." She sniffed it.  "It even smells like real sand."

Tai smirked.  "Come on now Mimi, aren't you going to taste it?"

She rolled her eyes.  "You know Tai, sometimes you act even more childish now than you did back when I first met you."

"Would you two please knock it off?" Sora whined.  "Let's just concentrate on figuring out where the next Talisman is.  You can goof off later on after we've made camp for the evening."

Biyomon walked beside her digidestined with the same stern look on her face.

Agumon and Tai both looked like they wanted to crawl under a rug.

They trudged on in silence for a few minutes, marveling at how strange the sand was.  The heat waves ahead made it difficult to judge the distance, and the contrast between the bright blue sky and the blackness underfoot made their eyes burn.

TK wiped the sweat out of his eyes with his free hand, glad that Patamon did not venture to sit on top of his head as often as he used to.  He looked up at his brother worriedly, but did not see any sign of weakness.  Matt's jaw was set and he was squinting ahead in determination.  The sweat was pouring off him though.

Gabumon was panting.  That fur coat of his was ill suited for such a warm day.  If the friendly blue striped digimon had not been so easily embarrassed, TK would have suggested he take it off for a while. 

Agumon was right in his element.  The toasty warm sand felt good against his scaly orange skin.  Tentomon buzzed overhead in the lead, also enjoying the dry heat.

Palmon walked slowly beside Mimi, not liking the heat, and glad she had had a good long drink at the fountain.  

Gomomon waddled beside Joe, looking around in wide-eyed fascination; glad he had gone for that nice swim at the fountain.  He was all charged up with water and comfortable at the moment.

"Can we stop for a break yet?" Mimi asked after a few more minutes.

Tai and Agumon turned around to face the pink haired girl and her wilting flower digimon.  "Mimi, we only just started.  We can't take a break until we get to the place where the Talisman is hidden."

"Where is that?" Mimi burst into tears.  "We've been walking for hours."

"We've been walking for ten minutes." Izzy corrected her, running a hand through his sweaty red hair.

"Well how much further is it?" She asked, taking a swig of water from her bottle, then pouring a little in her hand for Palmon.

Matt stopped beside her, pointing ahead.  "There it is." He wobbled a bit, bringing his hand to his head.

"You okay Matt?" TK asked.

"Yeah TK.  I'm fine." Matt smiled.  "It's just a bit hot."

Tai sighed, positioning himself back at Matt's side and sliding his best friend's loose arm over his own shoulder.  "Serves you right for wearing all black on such a warm day." He was glad he was just wearing his cargo-shorts and t-shirt.

The blond grimaced.  "Now I'll be even hotter.  Thanks a lot, Tai."

"You're welcome." Tai grinned, wiping some sweat off his forehead, wishing for a headband or something.  His mom had one that she used to wear back in the olden days.  "Okay people, double time.  We'll be at that big black thing over there in a flash if you just forget the heat and walk like you've got a purpose." He looked at Mimi in particular.  "No dawdling.  You got it?"

Mimi pouted.  "But…"

"No buts." Tai cut her off.  "Now move out." He started walking, half dragging Matt and TK along.  "Hup, two, three, four."

"Maybe it'll have a swimming pool." Mimi sobbed quietly, moving to follow, with Palmon right at her heels.

"With our luck it'll just be a mirage." Joe replied skeptically.  Gomomon forged ahead with renewed energy.

"What's a mirage?" Biyomon asked as she, Sora and Gabumon followed closely.

Sora shrugged.  "Well, it's when your eyes play tricks on you in the heat.  Your mind starts seeing things you want to see."

"Like ice-cream?" Gabumon asked, looking around, hoping to see some soft serve vanilla.

"I guess." Sora said.

Izzy, Patamon, Tentomon and Agumon brought up the rear.  "Hopefully we won't be in this desert long enough to suffer those effects." Izzy stated.  "People usually don't start seeing mirages until they get really dehydrated and become desperate."

"Who says I'm not desperate?" Mimi cried out.

Tai looked over his shoulder.  "Me." He continued walking.  "Nobody gets desperate until I tell them they are.  So button your lip and keep walking Mimi, or we'll leave you here.  And just remember, not all mirages are good ones.  Maybe a giant Rhinocerusmon will come charging at you and trample you.  Did you ever think of that?"

Mimi and Palmon raced ahead, passing TK, Matt, and Tai.

"Mimi." Tai sighed rolling his eyes.  "Now what's your problem?"

"I'm not getting trampled.  I'm getting out of this stupid desert." She cried out, looking back.  She faced forward again and stopped dead in her tracks.  "Oh, what now?" She asked, looking around frantically for a possible Rhinocerusmon.

The rest of the digidestined stopped beside her and gaped at the building in front of them.

"It looks like a big black igloo." Joe said slowly.  The large shiny black dome-shaped structure looked strangely inviting after trudging through the heat.  "Should we go in?"

Mimi stopped bawling.  "Maybe it has air conditioning!" She shrieked with joy.

"Maybe it has an ice cream stand." Patamon contributed.

"The next Talisman is inside there." Matt replied, blinking rapidly as if trying to clear his vision.

Gomomon sidled up to them.  "Well that isn't very original."

"Come on." Tai urged.  "It has to be cooler inside than it is out here in the sun."

They slowly walked through the cavernous doorway and followed the corridor for a little ways.  There were torches on the walls offering a subtle dim light source.  The stone the building was constructed of was cool to the touch.

"This place just gets weirder and weirder." Izzy commented as they stopped at a junction where the corridor split in two directions.  "Which way?"

Matt pointed right.  Tai gently slipped himself out from Matt's arm and joined Izzy at the redhead's laptop.  "What are you doing?"

Izzy frowned up at their leader.  "Well Tai, I noticed some strange poles sticking out of the top of this structure, so I was wondering if maybe they could act like a giant antennae.  Maybe the interference that is affecting the rest of the digiworld is minimal in here, so I'm going to try to get the digiport open again."

"I guess it's worth a try." Tai murmured, scratching his head.  "Hey TK, could you bring your D3 device over?"

"Sure." TK replied, leaning his big brother up against the wall.  "Are you going to be okay here for a minute, Matt?"

Matt nodded, even though his knees started to buckle the moment TK let him go.  Sora and Joe quickly took the young blonde's place.

TK glanced at Matt worriedly as he approached Izzy and Tai.  "I hope it works this time." He whispered.  "I thought he was getting better until we started into this stupid desert."

"It'll work." Tai said with furrowed brows.  "It's got to work."

"Well here goes nothing." TK said, pointing his D3 at the little yellow pineapple computer.  "Digiport open."

"Come on." Tai pleaded.

Nothing happened.

Izzy sighed, closing the case.  "Well, it was worth a try.  I wonder what those poles are for then."

"Maybe the architect wanted to create a tall slim atmosphere." Mimi suggested.

"Maybe they are control spires left over from the reign of the Digimon Emperor." Joe said.

Izzy shrugged.  "I doubt they are just decorum, and they sure didn't look like control spires.  I guess it could be something to do with the banishment." He hypothesized, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  "I wish I could e-mail Gennai.  I'll bet he knows what they are for."

Tai shrugged his shoulders.  "Ah, it's probably for something ridiculously unimportant.  Like what Mimi said."

"What?" She demanded with flashing brown eyes.

"Is it getting hot in here, or am I zoning out again?" Matt mumbled from between the digidestined holders of love and reliability.

Joe wiped his brow with his free hand.  "Hmm, maybe the air conditioner is on the fritz."

A sudden bright orange light filled the corridor; the loud chattering sound deafened the children and digimon to the point of pain.

"Oh no, Acolytemon!" Agumon yelled as the once vacant corridor was suddenly overflowing with a flurry of motion as the shiny black troll-like digimon started appearing with a blast of energy and a crackle of static.

Izzy herded Tai, TK and Mimi down the left arm of the corridor.  "We've got to get out of here, they're teleporting.  This place will be filled to capacity with evil digimon in no time!"

"Hey, we're going the wrong way!" Tai yelled, trying to stop, only to be prodded on by Izzy and Mimi.

TK stopped abruptly, looking back.  "Matt?" He yelled.  Izzy grabbed his arm and tugged the shorter blond forward.

"Don't worry about Matt.  Joe, Sora, Gabumon, Biyomon, Gatomon and Gomomon are with him.  They went the other way." Izzy snapped.  "Now come on!"

"Figures." Tai said in an annoyed tone.  "How come I always end up being forced to go the wrong way?" He stopped short.

"Tai." Mimi grabbed his arm.  "You can't just stop in the middle of the road you know, we're going to get trampled by rhinoceros.  Hello?" She continued to tug.

Tai dug in his heels.  "Hey, we don't have to run you guys, we've got two digimon that can zipdigivolve, one that can armordigivolve and er…  one regular digivolver.  Let's take a stand and fight."

"Tai."  Izzy hissed, giving him a push.  "We can't fight here.  The hall is too narrow; we need room for digivolving and to take an offensive defence.  Now get moving before those disgusting things catch up.  We can stop and fight after we get to a room or something.  Now move it!"

Palmon was in the lead with Patamon flying fast behind.  Agumon and Tentomon brought up the rear, looking over their shoulders every couple of seconds.

"W…  w…  what if some of them s…  s…  start teleporting in front of us?"  Mimi shrieked fearfully, watching the light ahead, flickering shadows across the walls.

"Shhhh." Tai hissed angrily.  "Don't you start giving 'em ideas Mimi!"

"Well I'm sorry." She whispered back fiercely.

"Um, you guys might want to pick up the pace a little." Agumon said urgently.  "I think the Acolytemon are starting to gain on us."

TK sighed in relief.  "Maybe they're all following us."

"You sound like this is good news?"   Mimi whimpered, half hysterically as she started to run to keep up with the two rookies in front of her.

TK shrugged, also running.  "Well if most of them chase us, then maybe Matt and the others will be okay.  It's not like those guys can exactly run." 

"Look at that!" Izzy panted, staring straight ahead.  "It looks like a room is up ahead."

"Finally." Tai moaned, looking over his shoulder only to see his first glimpse of the following trolls, and the front line of Acolytemon were glowing a bright yellow with curls of orange radiating from their core.

"What could their power be?" Mimi asked in despair as she ran through the corridor, noticing vaguely that it was getting somewhat larger as they approached their destination.

They tumbled into the large dimly lit chamber.

"Digivolve!" Mimi shrieked.

"Digi-armor Energize!" TK bellowed, clutching his D3 device in icy cold fingers.

"For Kari!" Tai wished.

"For our friends!" Izzy wished.

The room was suddenly bathed in a bright glow and flashing bursts of energy radiated around the four digimon as they each began to evolve to their higher levels.

"Palmon digivolve to…  Togemon!"

"Patamon armordigivolve to…  Pegasusmon, flying hope."

"Agumon zipdigivolve to…  Dynamogreymon!"

"Tentomon zipdigivolve to…  Kinetickabuterimon!"

A black flame sparked the air from beyond and a figure materialized nearby.  He was a muscular humanoid digimon completely covered in black from his boots to his gloves.  A grotesque red dragon mask with gold and black accents covered his face, and a long gold embroidered blood red cloak flowed behind his shoulders regally.  The embroidery on the cloak made Izzy's hair stand up on end as if the depictions were pure evil.

"Banefiremon." Tai whispered, stepping back and bumping into TK.

Izzy's eyes narrowed.  "Don't worry guys, just remember, this guy doesn't have any powers of his own right now either."

"Acolytemon attack!"  The sinister voice thundered, prompting the wave of Acolytemon, who had been stunned to a stop during the digivolution process, to proceed again as one.

*      *      *      *       *       *      *       *

"Hurry, this way." Gomomon urgently looked over his shoulder at the three lagging digidestined behind him.

Joe and Sora were going as fast as they could, half carrying, and half dragging their stumbling friend between them.

"Sorry."   Matt gasped, trying to keep his feet.

Joe stopped and glanced behind them.  "Is it just me, or does anyone else not hear any signs of evil digimon breathing down our necks?"

Gomomon squinted ahead.  "Well it's a lucky thing they didn't follow us.  We've reached a dead end."

"Matt, I thought you said the next Talisman was down this way." Gatomon said with some confusion in her big blue eyes.

"It is." Matt confirmed, wobbling slightly.  He brought a hand to his temple and took a deep breath.  "It's beyond that wall."

Joe scratched his head, regarding the wall in question skeptically.  "You mean we need to be on the other side of it?  So we have to back-track and take another turn to get around on the other side?"

Matt shook his head slowly.  "No.  There is only one way into it, and it's from this side."

"What is it?" Sora asked hesitantly, watching as Gabumon and Biyomon joined Gomomon and Gatomon standing in a little semicircle before the wall.

Matt shrugged.  "A tomb of some sort." He smiled lightly at Sora and Joe's horrified expressions.  "No dead Mons in there though.  It's just the hiding place for the Talisman."

"So, any idea how we get past this wall?" Sora asked as they approached it.  She knocked a few times, scraping her knuckles.

"Well, we could all try pushing." Joe suggested, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he regarded the wall with a frown.  He did not really have a lot of confidence in his own idea.

"Worth a try." Matt responded, pressing his palms against the cold shiny black stone.

Sora and the digimon joined them and heaved with all their might.

Matt stopped, turning to lean against it wearily, and slid down to a sitting position.  "No good." He gasped, rubbing his eyes.

"Are you okay, Matt?" Sora asked, kneeling down beside the blond with concern.

He nodded.  "Yeah, I'm just a little light headed, that's all."

Joe was still trying to push.  "It has to work.  Gomomon, why don't you digivolve to Ikkakumon and try to blast it down with your harpoon torpedo."

Biyomon crossed her hot pink wings over her chest.  "Hey, that's not fair.  You already have your Talisman.  This one is going to be Sora's."

"It is?" Sora asked, smiling.

Matt nodded slightly.  "If you can figure out how to open this wall, the Talisman of Faith is yours Sora."

"Faith, huh?" Sora repeated.  She stood up and started pacing.  "Tai used brute strength to get his Talisman of Strength.  Izzy had to solve a puzzle to get his Talisman of Wisdom, and Joe exercised endurance to get his Talisman of Endurance.  Maybe all I have to do is have faith that the wall will open."

"It's worth a try." Matt responded, resting his head on his knees.

They waited in silence for a minute and nothing happened.

"Well?" Gomomon asked.  "Do you have faith yet?"

Biyomon snorted.  "Give her a minute, Gomomon.  Sora has plenty of faith." The pink bird-like digimon fluttered beside the unsure looking red-haired girl.

"I don't know." Sora admitted.  "What am I supposed to do?  I have faith.  It should have opened already."

Joe was listening carefully.  "What was that?"

Gatomon perked up as a hollow boom was heard.  "I think you had better hurry up and find your faith Sora, I think the fight may be coming our way."

Joe gasped.  "Gomomon digivolve."

Everyone else stepped back as the narrow hallway exploded with sound and light as the little digimon started the digivolving process.  When he was done, the huge Ikkakumon now took up the whole hallway.

Gabumon sat beside Matt.  "It's a good thing Gomomon doesn't digivolve to Greymon." He said, hoping to get a laugh out of his injured partner.

"It's also a good thing that he was standing over there when he digivolved or we wouldn't be able to stand here beside the wall." Joe muttered, scratching his head.  "Um, I forgot how big you guys get when you digivolve." He looked at the ceiling and cringed.  "I just hope we don't bring this place down while we're in it."

Sora touched the wall the closed her eyes.  It _had_ to open.  The floor shook slightly under their feet as another tremor rippled through.  The sounds of battle were getting louder.  Hopefully Tai and the others would be okay.  "We need to get this Talisman so we can save Kari." She murmured, feeling her eyes water.  "I know we can do it.  We are the only ones who can."

Matt looked up from his sitting position.  "Hey, I think something's up.  The wall is getting warm." He slowly got up, using the now glowing warm stone for support, and Gabumon stood protectively at his side.

Biyomon fluttered around happily.  "I just knew you could do it Sora."  She looked over as Ikkakumon dedigivolved back to the more conveniently sized Gomomon.

The wall started moving away from them in a point, as it seemed to split in the center and open like two automatic double doors.

A cold gust of stale air swirled around the group as they entered the tomb hesitantly.  In the middle of the room was a gold engraved crypt, glowing warmly.  There was not a speck of dust in the room, even though it was fairly obvious that no one had been in the room for eons.  Bright light filtered into the chamber from the ceiling, bouncing off strategically placed mirror-like objects.

"That must be what those columns are for outside." Joe mused with a low whistle.  "To pipe in a light source."

Sora nodded as she and her fluttering pink bird digimon approached the beckoning gold crypt.  "Izzy would say:  Prodigious, no doubt." She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and took a deep breath before reaching into the deep box.  She hoped there wouldn't be any spiders, scorpions or scarabs milling about as a secondary protection for the Talisman.  Her fingers brushed over the smooth cool bottom of the small crypt and wrapped around the slim delicate chain.

"Well, is it there?" Joe asked, taking off his glasses and wiping them with his shirt before putting them back on.

Sora brought her hand out and the light caught the blood red stone, giving it a warm glow.  "The Talisman of Faith." She marveled, quickly hanging the chain around her neck with one last relieved glance before tucking it under her shirt.

Matt staggered back towards the corridor again as another tremor and muted booming sound reverberated through the dome.  "We've got to hurry and get back to the others.  Give the digimon a quick snack Joe, I have a feeling they are going to need it."  He whispered urgently, reeling painfully against the wall for balance.

Joe and Sora rushed to the blonde's side and each took an arm.

*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

Mimi shrieked and hid her eyes, cowering behind Tai, TK and Izzy as Banefiremon's grainy deep laughter polluted the room with menace.

"Banefire!" A new group of Acolytemon moved in from the corridor, each glowing yellow and orange again.  The room smelled like brimstone as the Acolytemon fired their evil energy at the quickly dodging digimon and their digidestined.

"Come on Dynamogreymon, why aren't you attacking?" Tai hollered with a cringe as a bolt of heat passed so closely to his unruly brown mop that he could have sworn he could smell burnt hair.

Dynamogreymon fired a considerably smaller blast of his incinerator attack towards the offending black beasts.  "I'm sorry Tai," He said gravely.  "I've nearly spent all my energy.  We need food if we are going to defeat these creatures."

"Come on Pegasusmon, do your stuff!" TK yelled, waving a fist in the air as he closely watched his digimon glide gracefully across the tall ceilinged room.

"Star shower!" The voice boomed, only a little stronger than Dynamogreymon's because he had reserved himself somewhat in case the others became too weak to continue fighting.  A couple of Acolytemon exploded into black digidust as Pegasusmon's blast provided several direct hits.

The digidestined's cheers of victory quickly soured as the defeated Acolytemon were replaced just as quickly as they had been destroyed.

"Tai, this is nuts!" Izzy yelled as he watched Kinetickabuterimon just barely avoid taking a hit, and returning fire at half his strength.  "Call a retreat.  We can't beat them like this unless you've got a basket of tuna fish sandwiches hiding under your shirt!"

Tai flung out an arm.  "Retreat to where, Izzy?  In case you haven't noticed, we are kind of boxed in here.  Remember?"

"I'm too young and beautiful to die!"  Mimi wailed loudly.

"Shut up Mimi." Tai growled.  Where were Matt and the others?  If they had gone the other way and were followed, how were they supposed to survive?  Tai's group was larger with two zipdigivolvers and an armordigivolver on top of that and they were _barely_ holding their own.  Matt's group would be toast.

Togemon spun around firing her needle spray attack, obliterating a few of the closer enemies.  She dedigivolved back to Palmon with a dissapointed look on her little green face.

"Oh no, Palmon!" Mimi cried.  "Tai, do something!" She tugged at their leader's arm with icy cold, but sweaty fingers.

"Ow!  Mimi, get your fingernails trimmed or something.  Palmon's just hungry.  Joe's got the food.  Remember?  There isn't a whole lot that I can do here except encourage them to keep fighting."

Mimi had tears blurring her big brown eyes.  "Well you could always let them eat you." She snapped, hugging her little green plant-like digimon tightly.

Tai gave her a dirty look.  "I'll pretend I didn't hear that on account of you being hysterical." He bit his lip while he watched Pegasusmon obliterate three more Acolytemon, but ultimately take a hit from one of the beasts from in behind and dedigivolve back to Patamon and fall bonelessly at TK's feet.  Dynamogreymon and Kinetickabuterimon were stronger than Togemon and Pegasusmon, but even combined, their power could not go on indefinitely pitted against an entire army of Acolytemon.

Banefiremon laughed like he sensed Tai's turmoil.  "You put up a valiant fight young ones, now are you ready to finally admit defeat and yield.  You will never acquire the Talisman of Faith.  Give up while you still have your lives."

Tai's shoulders sagged.  He had so much heart.  How could he give up?

"Tornado Tusk!" A voice boomed from out of nowhere.

"Comet Blaze!" 

TK's head shot up from where he was tending Patamon.  "What was that?" He scrambled to his feet with his rookie Digimon held tightly in his arms as his eyes swept across the chamber, trying to find the new threat.  What he was not expecting to see was an explosion triggered from outside the doorway to the chamber.  Stone boulders that framed the entrance crumbled away in a colossal cloud of dust and rock particles, creating a large hole where the door once stood.  Several Acolytemon were traumatized by the blast and disintegrated into fine digidust immediately where they stood.

Two bright flashes of swirling energy entered the chamber, taking out the entire front line of Acolytemon, from behind.  As the black digidust settled, a new figure stood before them.  He was large, not so big as Greymon, but bigger than Garurumon.  He had metallic orange fur covering his body with two long gold curved tusks and a golden horn on his head.  He held a long golden trident spear in his paws that was humming with stored power, and he wore a shiny black and gold shield across his right arm.

Behind him came a creature from straight out of a futuristic sci-fi flick.  She looked like a robot, covered in metal armor.  Her shiny red and black-feathered wings were edged with gold, and her headdress was of a gold and black scale-like design, giving her an almost flying serpentine appearance.  Her eyes glimmered brightly with flaring energy.

Tai stepped back with a gulp as he studied the kindly eyes of the newcomers nervously.

"No!" Banefiremon bellowed in fury as he teleported away in a breath of smoke.

"Huh?"  Mimi asked.  "Why'd he run away?  He practically had our graves dug already."

Garurumon leapt into the room with a blood-curdling howl to join the new comers in action and finish off the lingering Acolytemon who had not had the sense to run away once their master had made his cowardly escape.  The three fresh digimon blasted away at the spindly little beasts rapidly before the enemies could recharge for any hope of retaliation.  In moments, the room was silent.  The former battle merely a memory.

"Garurumon, you're okay."  TK said in a relieved voice.  "Where are Matt and the others?"

"We're coming, we're coming."  Joe stated irritably as the three with Gatomon guarding the rear joined them.  "We can only go so fast you know."

Tai nodded.  "Yeah, I know.  Matt isn't as young and spry as he used to be."

Matt gave their big-haired leader a dirty look, but remained silent.

"Prodigious."  Izzy exclaimed as he examined the two friendly new digimon who had literally scared off Banefiremon.  "You two are the zipdigivolved forms of Gomomon and Biyomon, aren't you."

Joe stepped forward proudly.  "Oh yeah, I guess introductions are in order.  Everyone, meet Maximikkakumon and Cyberbirdramon.  Maximikkakumon's main attack is Tornado Tusk and Cyberbirdramon's main attack is Comet Blaze."

The digimon dedigivolved back to rookie as they turned to leave the room.

"So Banefiremon teleported the heck out of Dodge when he saw you guys because he knew you already had the Talisman in your possession."  Izzy  hypothesized thoughtfully.

Sora nodded, pulling it out of her shirt for another look.

"Oh, can I see it?"  Mimi squealed excitedly, reaching over.  "Oh it's gorgeous.  I hope mine is pink.  Oh Matt."  She fluttered her eyelashes at the pale digidestined between Sora and Joe.  "Can you tell where mine is yet?  And is it pink?"

Matt shrugged tiredly.

"Well, your timing was perfect."  Tai said, biting his lip.  "But I'm kind of confused here.  Now, we had two zipdigivolvers in the fight, and we were only fighting one Evil one's minions and we barely were holding our own.  If you guys hadn't shown up when you did, he'd be mopping up the floor with us right now.  You'd think that with two really cool zipdigivolvers, things would go a little bit easier, don't you?  What's going to happen when we fight all five of the Evil ones together?  If we need four zipdigivolvers to defeat...  no scare away, one Evil one, how are we going to defeat five of them?"

"Tai, you are thinking too far ahead."  Matt said quietly.  "Let's just take it one step at a time.  I'm sure we'll have it all figured out before that time comes."

Their leader's shoulders sagged.  "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The journey back outside was uneventful as they met no forgotten Acolytemon and Izzy used his laptop to guide them out through the dim passageways.

Mimi stepped out of the black dome with a groan.  "It's still too hot.  I refuse to walk another step in that blistering heat."  She plopped herself down on the ground and took a sip of water from her bottle.

TK nodded.  "She's right Tai.  Let's just feed the digimon and they can carry us across."  He watched his older brother worriedly.  "Matt was doing better before we hit the desert.  I don't want him walking any more today.  We should set up camp as soon as possible for the night."

Tai let out a frustrated sigh.  "I know, I know.  Okay, let's do it.  Joe, feed the crew."

TBC…


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer:  We do not own Digimon, we just like writing about them.

A/N:  Many thanks to Reion and Jewel for your patience and kind reviews for chapter 6.  Sorry it has taken sooooooooooo long to get this up, I was waiting for my proofreader to correct all my mistakes (there were too many to count…), and I have crossed over to the dark side.  I have discovered the Lord of the Rings (so many fics to read….  so little time…  but I will get the rest of this story up!  ^_^)

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 7

By Fenris5000—Angelica

"TK, when is he going to wake up?"  Mimi whispered, resisting the primeval urge to grab the sleeping boy's shoulder and shake him silly.

TK wasn't one hundred percent awake either.  "He'll wake up when he's ready Mimi, now go back to sleep.  No one else is up yet.  Why do you want to wake up my brother?"

She blushed.  "That is none of your business."  She huffed, turning away to pout.

The blond boy folded his arms.  "Fine, have it your way.  As long as he's resting, I'm his guardian.  I won't let you wake him up for something stupid.  Run it by me, and if I think it's worth waking him up, I'll do it myself.  Otherwise, go back to sleep."

The pink haired girl glared at TK.  "Oh why do I even bother?  You wouldn't understand."

"Shhh."  TK hissed angrily.  "Keep it down."  He whispered hoarsely.

"But I want to know about my Talisman."  Mimi wailed as quietly as she could.

The rest of the camp stirred.

TK rolled his eyes.  "Who says you even get a Talisman?  There are three of us left and only one Talisman to go."  He turned back to his brother and was not too surprised to find Matt's bloodshot eyes open and watching the two with a patient lack of expression.

"Oh goody, you're awake."  Mimi smiled, all charm.

"I am now."  Matt admitted, slowly sitting up and resting his head in his hands.

The digidestined child of hope gave Mimi a dirty look.  " Sorry Matt.  I tried."

"Whatever."  Came Matt's muffled reply.  "Well, what do you want?"

Mimi watched the pale boy nervously.  "Um, well, gee Matt, you look awful this morning.  Maybe we should get you something to eat or drink.  Do you feel all right?  Does your head still hurt?"

Matt looked up and shook his head gently, his deep blue eyes amused.  "I feel like I was run over by a bus, thanks.  You didn't wake me up because you thought I might be hungry.  Now why did you wake me up?"  He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"Well...  um...  er...  I was just...  um...  wondering if you could...  er...  tell me anything about the next Talisman."  Mimi bit her lip and started drawing figure eights on her leg, unable to look him straight in the eye.  "TK said I might not even get one."  She felt her eyes start to water.  Why was she crying?  This was ridiculous!

Matt sighed, closing his eyes as a wave of dizziness washed over him.  "I'm sorry Mimi, I wish I could tell you, but I don't have the answers."

"Okay, that'll do for now."  TK whispered brusquely, moving to ease his older brother's head and shoulders back.  "Come on, lay down Matt.  You need a bit more rest before I let you start walking around again.  We're just lucky we didn't wake up Gabumon, or he'd have a fit."  He would probably have a fit anyway once he saw the dark circles that had formed under Matt's eyes

"You really don't know?"  Mimi continued anxiously.  "Or you won't tell me?"

"Mimi."  TK said in an exasperated tone.

Matt smiled; his eyes were already closed.  "I won't know until we get to the Cliffs of Shadow."  He muttered sleepily, and then relaxed as his breathing deepened.

"He's exhausted."  TK worried out loud, patting his brother's hand gently.  He turned to the ashamed girl beside him.  "So was it worth waking him up?"  He asked acidly.

Mimi flinched.  "I'm sorry."  She barely whispered, avoiding eye contract.  "I thought he knew more and I honestly thought he'd be feeling better.  I'll...  I'll...  go now."  She sniffed, wiping her eyes with her hot pink sleeve.  It left a darkened stain, but she didn't care.  She got up, pausing in surprise as TK grabbed her wrist.

He had a sorrowful smile.  "For what it's worth; I'm curious too."

*     *     *     *     *     *

A few hours later, TK was watching the blackened clouds roll in, bringing with them the promise of rain.  A few odd drops already sprinkled.

TK's gaze wandered over the rest of the group.  Agumon was keeping their little fire burning while Tai, Sora, Mimi and Izzy were sitting around it eating their little piles of fruit and nuts.  Joe and Gomomon were repacking the supplies bag.  Tentomon, Biyomon and Palmon were foraging for more food to bring along on the journey since they had managed to seriously deplete Joe's never-ending supply of energy bars yesterday.  Gabumon, Gatomon and Patamon were sitting closely by Matt, who was trying to get some fruit down but was shaking like a leaf.

"Cold?"  TK asked, trying not to sound too much like a fuss bucket.

Matt shrugged his shaking shoulders.  "I guess so."  He muttered, putting the rest of his fruit on the ground beside him and dropping his head into his hands and leaning forward against his knees.

Gabumon put his paws around his digidestined's thin shoulders worriedly.  "Come on Matt, you need to sit closer to the fire."

Matt shrugged.  "Whatever."

"Are you okay, Matt?"  TK asked tentatively as his brother made no movement to comply with his digimon's suggestion.

The older blond nodded slightly.  "Yeah, sure.  I feel okay except for the headache.  And it's a bit cool today."  He shivered, bringing his head up and leaning against Gabumon.

Tai got to his feet and regarded the sky, biting his lower lip gently.  "Well troops, are we about ready to hit the trail?  We've got one more Talisman to go."

"And then what?"  Sora asked, shivering slightly.  A fat raindrop plopped on her head and rolled down her cheek.  She wiped it away and tucked a stray piece of crimson hair behind her ear.  "We'll have the power apparently, to beat the five Evils and hopefully their minions, but how?  I doubt there's an instruction guide that comes with the last Talisman."  She got up and moved to help Joe and Gomomon finish packing.

Tentomon, Biyomon and Palmon returned from the forest with handfuls of fruit and nuts.  "Did we get enough?"  Palmon asked, dumping her load into the supply bag.

"Looks good to me."  Joe confirmed as the others added theirs as well.

"Great!"  Tai clapped his hands eagerly.  "Then let's get going.  This'll be a snap."  He joined TK to get Matt to his feet.  "Well, I guess slow but steady finishes the race.  Still a little bit wobbly I see Matt, what are we going to do with you?"  He chided, shaking his head.

Matt raised an eyebrow.  "So I'm slow and wobbly, huh?  Well at least I'm not loud and annoying."  He draped one arm over Tai's shoulder and the other over TK's.

"Hey, I'm not that loud."  Tai growled with a grin.  "Just you wait until you're feeling better Ishida, you have no idea just how annoying I can be when I really put my mind to it."

Matt rolled his eyes.  "Oh no.  Quick TK, put me out of my misery right now."

"You guys."  TK said, pulling the two along as they took the rear guard.  "Less talking and more walking.  That last Talisman isn't exactly going to come find us now, is it?"

Tai shrugged his shoulders, meeting TK's steps.  "Who knows?  In the Digiworld, anything is possible."

A big raindrop nailed TK in the eyes.  He wiped it away with his sleeve and watched the looming cliffs ahead as they slowly approached.  The dark cloud hung lazily above, obscuring their view of the top of the mountain, and the sounds of thunder mixed in with another mournful wailing sound coming from the top of the craggy stone cliffs.

Sora and Mimi stopped abruptly and looked at each other with equally frightened expressions.

"What did you stop for?"  Tai asked in an irritated tone of voice.

"That noise."  They both said at the same time.

Tai rolled his chocolate brown eyes and shook his head impatiently.  "It's the wind.  Now let's get a move on before it really starts raining.  We probably have to climb the cliffs to find the Talisman.  If they are wet, one of us could fall off or something.  I'd kind of like to get this all over with before that happens."  No one moved.  "Okay, Agumon, Gabumon and Izzy take the lead.  Let's go."

"You heard him everyone."  Agumon said proudly.  "Let's go."  He took the point and was flanked by Gabumon, Izzy and Tentomon.  The rest of the group picked up the pace somewhat and trailed closely behind.

"It's only the wind."  Mimi muttered, biting her nails worriedly.  "My foot."

Sora shrugged, hugging her arms in closer.  "He has a point.  What _else_ could it be?"

Mimi paled as an intense howl broke through the air.  "Oh, how about the ghosts of all the evil digimon we've ever defeated?"  She suggested, wiping her face as she was hit with the sudden downpour of rain.  "Now I'm getting wet.  That is just great.  Did anyone think to bring an umbrella?"

"Quit whining Mimi or we'll leave you home next time."  Tai said grumpily as he pushed his wet hair out of his face.  He should have worn a rain slicker.  He could already feel his shirt sticking to himself uncomfortably.

"I would like to see you try, Taichi Kamiya."  Mimi spat, crossing her wet arms across her chest, shivering.  "Let's turn around and go back to the desert."  She moaned.  "I can't believe it could go from so hot to so cold in the span of less than a day."

Sora hunched her shoulders and trudged beside the soggy pink haired girl.  "If we went back, then we'd never get the next Talisman."

Mimi snorted as her sandals started to make squishing noises.  "I'm beginning to think it may not be worth all this."

"You mean rescuing Kari may not be worth a few uncomfortable obstacles?"  TK asked incredulously, speeding up a bit and giving Mimi a dark look.

"That is not what I meant, okay?  I want to rescue Kari as much as everybody else does.  I'm just feeling a little bit cold and wet and home-sick."  Mimi cried.  "You've got to believe me.  I'll stop complaining, honest I will.  I just need to talk to keep my mind on something besides those scary noises which are getting louder and louder."

"Relax Mimi."  Matt said breathing hard.  "Those noises are probably just there to scare us.  Nothing more."

Tai turned a critical eye on his soggy shivering best friend.  "Something else scary.  How is it possible that you seem to know so much about what's going on around here?  Which Talisman is which, where they are, how to use them, and who they're for.  What's up with that?  And don't give me the old _I can't explain it_ excuse because I'm not buying it."

Matt sighed.  "Well I can't, so back off Tai.  I don't know anything; I just get these strong feelings when we are near them.  I don't know why."

"Maybe it has something to do with that black light Kari hit you with."  Izzy said slowly.  "You were the only one hurt by it, maybe you absorbed some of that power and it makes you sensitive to the Talismans."

Tai snapped his fingers.  "You know Izzy, you just may be on to something there.  I knew we kept you around for something."

"Thanks Tai."  Izzy said dryly.  "It's nice to feel needed."  He was clutching his laptop securely under his brown windbreaker, hoping the weather wouldn't fry its circuits.

Joe took his fogged up glasses off and squinted ahead with an irritated frown.  "I can't see without my glasses, and I can't see with my glasses.  Can somebody please give me the heads up if you notice me wandering over towards a ravine?"  He said sourly.

"I'll lead you Joe."  Gomomon piped up.

Gatomon was on the other side.  "Your new job:  Seeing Eye digimon."

"Yeah."  Gomomon agreed enthusiastically.  "So should I charge by the day or by the hour?"

"Hey, you aren't supposed to charge your friends."  Joe spluttered, readjusting the heavy bag over his shoulder.  "Are we nearly there yet?  This bag is starting to get really heavy."

Tai wiped his hair out of his face again and looked ahead.  The rainy misty air distorted his sense of distance somewhat.  "Hey Izzy, are we getting any closer?"

Agumon looked back with a confused expression.  "Of course we're getting closer Tai, we are walking towards it."

"Ha, good one Agumon."  Gomomon cheered from behind him.

"What?"  Agumon scratched his head.  "What did I say?"

*     *     *     *     *

It was raining harder.  TK's arms were covered in goose bumps, even under his long sleeved green cotton T-shirt.  He wiped at his eyes trying to dry them somewhat.  Matt was still shivering, but walking without faltering.  He squinted ahead through the cold hazy rain.  He didn't know what he should be looking for anymore.  He just hoped they would reach it before Matt's spurt of adrenalin waned.

"Hey, look up ahead."  Gabumon said pointing excitedly.  "Just beyond the trees there.  Could that be the base of the Cliffs?"

Tai reached into is pocket and pulled out his prized mini-telescope and brought it up to his eye.  Miracle of miracles he was able to see through it.  "Yes!"  He yelled.

"Not so loud, Tai."  Matt whined with a look of disdain on his pale face.

Tai grimaced.  "Oops, sorry Matt.  But we're almost there.  I'm just excited, okay?"

The blond nodded, rolling his eyes.  "All right, well let's pick up the speed a little bit then, I'm getting tired of all this walking."

TK kept his pace the same, shaking his head.  "Forget it Bro.  I'm not letting you overexert yourself."

The digimon and digidestined lapsed into an uneasy silence as they approached the base of the craggy Cliffs of Shadow.  The moaning sounds were louder, seeming to be originating from the mist shrouded peaks of the mountains.

Agumon stopped shortly and gazed at the barren solid stone mountain and scratched his head.  "Tai, what do you make of that?"  He asked, pointing his clawed orange scaly arm at the spot of the sheer wall.

Tai slipped out from under Matt's arm and joined his digimon partner, brushing past Izzy on the way.  He rubbed the rain out of his eyes and stared with his mouth agape.

Sora cringed.  "What is it?"

"Stairs."  Tai said in a curious voice.  He turned to the group.  "Um, you guys think we should take them?"  They were steep and slick with rain.

Izzy shrugged.  "Beats climbing a rope or a ladder."

Matt sneezed.

"Okay, we take the stairs."  TK said hurriedly with a concerned glance at his brother, whose face was beginning to look a little flushed.  He put his free hand up to Matt's forehead.  "Oh no."

"Oh no what?"  Tai repeated warily, already guessing the answer.

"Fever."  TK muttered, earning a blood shot glare from his older, shivering brother.

Tai sighed in frustration.  "Matt, wasn't it bad enough you had a concussion?  How are we supposed to get anything accomplished around here with you always being such a burden?"  He smiled, walking back to his best friend and ducked the half-hearted fist that came at him.  "Hey, just kidding."  The big-haired boy rolled his eyes, slipping back into position under Matt's shoulder.  He scowled with worry.  TK was right; Matt's skin had gone from cold and clammy to hot and clammy.

"Remind me to knock your block off when I'm feeling better."  Matt muttered as they mounted the steps slowly.

"Yeah, yeah."  Tai mumbled, keeping his eyes on the stairs in front of him.  "You getting any um, signals from the next Talisman yet?"

Matt sighed, blinking rapidly as a large water droplet fell into his left eye, leaving his vision half blurry.  "Um, well I can tell we are going the right way."  He admitted.  "I don't know who it's for or what it is though."  He was breathing heavily.

"No more talking."  TK said, giving his older brother and their fearless leader the evil eye.  "We need to conserve our strength for the climb."

"Talking isn't exactly an exertion TK."  Tai laughed.

TK pointed to his drooping brother.  "Maybe it isn't for you Tai, but it is for Matt."

They walked on in a nervous silence for about a half hour.  The pace had become as a snails.  The moaning sounds had been temporarily forgotten as lightening streaked across the unnaturally black midmorning digital sky, and thunder rumbled and crashed around them fearsomely.

Mimi and Sora stopped and looked back at the others.

"What did you stop for this time?"  Tai panted, wiping his droopy wet hair out of his eyes and trying to plaster it back like Dracula's; it "boinged" back into his face.

"There's a ledge."  Sora said, pointing.  "We thought it might be a good time to take a little rest."

Tai readjusted Matt's arm over his shoulder and nodded.  "I totally agree."   He said.  "But we can't stop for long.  The sooner we get the Talisman and get off this mountain the better.  But we could use a little rest.  Matt isn't exactly getting any lighter."

"So put me down already."  Matt moaned, swaying a bit.

TK tightened his grip around his brother.  "Hold on Matt, we aren't at the ledge yet.  Just a few more steps, okay?"

"Lead on Mimi."  Tai said, giving his best friend a hard stare.  "Come on Matt, you love climbing stairs.  Just a few more."

Mimi and Palmon took the lead.  The pink haired girl was muttering something about the uncouth noises her ghastly imitation Italian sandals were making.  Squish, squish, squish.

"Oh Mimi." Palmon said in her singsong voice watching her soggy digidestined affectionately.

Joe, Izzy, Gomomon and Tentomon were right behind them.  Izzy let his fingertips trace along the stone guardrail between them and the long drop into the hazy nothingness beyond.  He peered over the edge and whistled in wonder.  "Prodigious!  We are already so high up that the clouds are obscuring our view of the ground."

Joe kept his eyes straight ahead.  "Thanks Izzy, that is something I really did not want to know."

Izzy rattled the railing.  "Hmm.  Well here's something that could come in handy for you.  Don't lean over the railing; it's falling apart."

Joe moved closer to the mountain wall.  "I have no intentions of going near that shoddy thing."  He patted the wall with a nervous grin.  "I like it here just fine."

They stopped on the ledge and moved under the natural canopy of stone over the slight indentation in the side of the rock face.  It was too small to be called a cave, but it was close.

Joe sat with his back to the wall and watched as Mimi perched herself on the railing with a gusty sigh.

"Er, Mimi..." Tentomon said hesitantly.

"What?"  Her eyes widened and she let out a screech as the railing crumbled under her and she disappeared over the edge.

"Mimiiiiiiiiiiiii!"  Palmon leaped over after her digidestined, managing to avoid Izzy and Joe's scrambling hands to stop her.

"Noooooooo!"  Sora was right behind them, her face a mask of horror.

"What?"  Tai demanded as the three stragglers and their digimon joined them.

Sora started to cry, falling down to her knees.

Joe was shaking his head firmly.

Izzy frowned up at Tai.  "Mimi just fell over the cliff."  He barely whispered.

"What?"  Tai demanded, his jaw hanging open in shock.

"She's gone Tai."  Sora sobbed.  "What are we going to do now?"  She asked in a tremulous voice, looking at the ground.

Tai took a deep breath; his eyes lost their usual sparkle.  "A...  are you sure she fell off...  the cliff?"  He stammered, moving to help Matt sit down for a break while the rest of them figured out what was to be done.

"The railing gave away."  Izzy stated in a small voice.  "She went over.  Down.  Palmon followed her."  Hi wiped the tear-mingled rain out of his eyes with a harsh swipe of his hand.

"How could you guys let her fall over the cliff?"  Tai asked through gritted teeth.  This wasn't right.  How could he lose another one:  first Kari, and then nearly Matt.  Now Mimi.  At the rate he was going, he'd be down to just Ken and Cody when he got back to Odaiba.

Joe sat up straighter and looked over his shoulder at their forlorn big-haired leader in disbelief.  "We didn't _let_ her fall.  She just fell.  It all happened so fast we didn't have time to react."  Hi eyes were red as tears flowed freely.

TK made a choking noise in his throat and collapsed to his knees next to his brother, who was sadly staring off at nothing.

"What about your digimon?"  Tai continued.  "Why couldn't you guys digivolve?"

Sora got up and started pacing.  "Quit trying to put the blame on someone Tai.  It won't help anything anyway.  It wasn't anyone's fault.  It was a bad accident that we couldn't prevent, but are going to have to live with."  She buried her head in her hands and her shoulders shook with pain.

"What am I going to tell her parents?"  Tai mumbled miserably.

A loud boom shook the mountain as lightening zigzagged across the sky.

"You won't have to tell them anything, my dear digidestined."  A deep voice from above them said silkily, shocking the teenagers and their digimon from their reflections.  "Because soon, you are about to share her fate."  His booming laughter chilled the air around them as he raised his ebony staff and smashed it to the ground five times.

"Agumon digivolve!"  Tai yelled automatically as the rest of the group snapped back to attention and followed suit.  The bright blue light and pulsating strobe light effect obliterated the rock face as the digimon evolved to their next levels.

"Agumon digivolve to Greymon.  Greymon zipdigivolve to Dynamogreymon!"

"Tentomon digivolve to Kabuterimon.  Kabuterimon zipdigivolve to Kinetickabuterimon!"

"Gomomon digivolve to Ikkakumon.  Ikkakumon zipdigivolve to Maximikkakumon!"

"Biyomon digivolve to Birdramon.  Birdramon zipdigivolve to Cyberbirdramon!"

"Patamon armordigivolve to Pegasusmon!"

"Gabumon digivolve to Garurumon!"

The black cloaked tall willowy digimon with the stark white skin laughed evilly as the digidestined and their digimon soon found themselves trapped from above as well as below by a sudden influx of the little spiny black Acolytemon, summoned by their master.

"You are going down Darknessmon!"  Tai yelled with blind rage.  This demon had taken his sister and one of his friends away from him.  He was going to stop one of these evil ones once and for all!

"Incinerator attack!"  Dynamogreymon growled, aiming a wide burst of intense flame from his jaws like a fire breathing dragon.  The Acolytemon from above scurried up the next steps in retreat.

The digidestined pressed themselves back against the face of the mountain in the hopes of keeping out of the way.

"Go Cyberbirdramon!"   Sora yelled, waving madly as she watched her digimon who looked like a cross between a bird and an android, spread her wings and glide gracefully off the cliff.  She came back up with a loud swooping noise.

"Comet blaze!"  She yelled as her eyes glowed and fired off a laser beam like energy that forced the Acolytemon further up the path.

The Acolytemon below the ledge were starting to charge up their energy, emitting an evil black glow.

Kinetickabuterimon zipped through the air with a soothing hum and charged up for his own attack, letting loose a microsecond before the Acolytemon were ready for their attack.

"Galvanic zapper!"  The nearest black beasts were fried to a crisp and then reduced to a pile of digidust.  The Acolytemon formerly behind them started making wild chattering noises and backed down, charging up their energy as their predecessor had.

"Tornado tusk!"  Maximikkakumon bellowed in his deep voice, shooting a bright swirling multi-purple colored fire from his long golden trident spear at the next line of Acolytemon, who were forced down the steps further before succumbing to the force of energy and exploding.  The Acolytemon behind them fired a black vibrating blast towards the digidestined, taking cover on the ledge.  Maximikkakumon moved like lightening and caught the blast with his black and gold shield.

TK leapt onto Pegasusmon's back and ducked as a blast of pure blackness swept towards them.  It was time to take out the leader.  The gold winged horse kicked off the ground smoothly and soared into the misty sky, dodging the spurts of evil energy that chased them.  Pegasusmon turned about and hovered above.

"Star shower!"  The starbursts sped like missiles towards Darknessmon.

Tai watched from the ledge.  A direct hit!  They were going to have a direct hit!  Finally, things were finally starting to go their way!

TK watched with some satisfaction as the attack approached the evil black demon; and then pass right through him.  "What?"  He spluttered.

Tai's jaw dropped.  No, no, no.  He was supposed to explode into a fabulous ball of fire and crumble into digidust, but no, Darknessmon was still levitated above them with that smug, evil, ugly, disgusting smile plastered across his corrupt, heinous, wicked, malevolent, repugnant despicable, odious pasty white face.  Tai's shaking form turned to their resident genius,  "How do you explain that, Izumi?"

Izzy flinched under their leader's venomous stare.  "Hologram?"  He suggested with a shrug.

"And if you say _prodigious_, I'll have you flogged."  Tai growled.

Izzy frowned.  "There is nothing _prodigious_ about this development Tai.  I am very insulted that you would insinuate that I say the word _prodigious_ under every circumstance possible."

TK and Pegasusmon made another pass, this time upping the ante.

Sora, Matt, Joe and Gatomon watched dumfounded as the spray of intense energy fazed through their evil adversary a second time and crash into the mountain instead, sending a rain of tiny rock chips down on the rest of the grounded digimon and digidestined.

Garurumon charged into position.  "Howling blaster!"  The icy blue flow of energy erupted from the large dark blue and white striped digimon's strong jaw.  The energy shot straight at Darknessmon, passing right through him and slamming into the mountain just below the spot Pegasusmon's attack had hit.  A chunk of wall came away and hurtled down towards the ledge, bursting into a million pieces as it hit the ground.

Matt sat up with a start and looked up.  "The Talisman."  He whispered.

"Which one?"  Sora inquired, chewing her lip as she watched Cyberbirdramon shooting intense yellow laser beams from her eyes, obliterating Acolytemon from above their ledge one by one as if she were on a shooting range, hitting pop bottles.

The blond frowned, clutching his head, "Oh man, this isn't good."  He sighed deeply.  "It's harmony.  It's Mimi's."

"Oh no."  Sora moaned.  "So that's it, isn't it?  The journey is over.  We have to fight with only four Talismans."

Darknessmon's deep booming laughter filled the air, mingling with the crashing of thunder that shook the entire mountain.  "Give it up Digidestined, you will never beat us.  Your precious eighth digidestined has willingly joined us.  So do yourselves a favour and admit defeat."  He levitated closer.  "You see you can not win unless you possess all five Talismans and acquire the knowledge to wield them."

"Who says we don't have all five Talismans?"  Tai challenged, shaking his fist at the demon-like creature.  "And we are kids, it won't take us long to figure out how they work."

"Yeah!"  A voice yelled from out of nowhere.

"Who was that?"  Joe demanded, spinning around.

A dainty hand crawled up onto the ledge, followed closely by a grungy tattered hot pink sleeve.  Mimi's smiling face popped into view.  "Hi, didja miss me?"

Joe and Izzy raced to the edge of the ledge and grabbed her hands to haul her up.  Palmon's smiling face followed.

"Palmon digivolve!"  Mimi ordered.

The little green digimon with the exotic pink flower on her head started to glow blue.  "Palmon digivolve to Togemon!"

All the digimon attacked at once, firing their attacks at the last of the Acolytemon who remained above and below the ledge.

"Incinerator Attack."  Dynamogreymon growled, aiming his fireball at the last three, disintegrating them to crisp black digidust instantly.

Darknessmon's eyes narrowed as he regarded the digidestined and their digimon's triumph.  They were going to get the fifth and final Talisman, there was no way a mere hologram was going to be able to stop them.

"What's the matter, Darknessmon?  Run out of stooges?"  Tai jeered.  "You know, you could always teleport your true self here now and fight like a real digimon instead of hiding behind a little girl."

The pasty-faced black-cloaked digimon snarled at them as his form dissipated to nothing.  The promise of his vengeance to come hung heavily in the air.

The digidestineds looked around at each other and let out a collective sigh.

"Mimi!"  Joe was the first to find his voice.  "You're alive!"  He grabbed her and gave her an enormous hug.  "I don't know how it happened, but I sure am glad it did."

Mimi smiled.  "You may thank Palmon for my survival.  She caught me and we landed on the stairs below."  She paused as TK and Pegasusmon landed and joined them.  "We had to climb because all those icky Acolytemon things were between us and you"

"New rule."  Tai said, taking his turn hugging the pink-haired girl.  "No one touch that rail."

"Good rule."  Sora rolled her eyes.

"Hey, aren't we forgetting about something?"  Joe asked, taping his foot.

Matt smiled, pointing straight up the mountain where the rock had chipped.  "Right there.  It's the Talisman of Harmony.  It's for you, Mimi."

Mimi gazed up with her jaw open.  "Well how am I supposed to get way up there?"  She demanded shrilly.  She put her hands on her hips and pouted.  "Unless...  Do you guys think you could give me a boost of something?"  She batted her eyes at Pegasusmon.  "Or maybe a lift?"

TK shrugged.  "Sure, climb on.  We can't get very close though."  

Mimi looked over the group as the rest of the digimon started dedigivolving.  "Palmon can come and reach the Talisman in the wall for me."

"Right."  Palmon agreed, joining Mimi and TK on the golden Pegasus.  "Well let's get cracking.  I'd like to see what these Talismans could really do."

"Oh, I can't wait to see mine.  Do you think it'll be pink?"  Mimi chirped with glee.

Matt shrugged.  "Probably."

Pegasusmon kicked off the ledge and slowly approached the damaged rock face.  "This is as close as I can get."  He informed them as he hovered about six feet from the chipped wall.

Palmon got into position and aimed her little green fingers to the spot.  "Poison ivy."  She said.  The pink tendrils flew across and clutched at the Talisman, wrapping around the chain.  She tugged it free and retracted her ivy.

Mimi's eyes shone as Palmon placed the newest Talisman into her eager hands.  "Oh I'm soooooooooo happy!"  She squealed.  "It _is_ pink!"

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

A/N:  Many thanks to those of you who read and reviewed Chapter 7 (SilverSphinx, chibi Nataly, Miyo86, K. Asayuni and Moon Trance).  You guys are the best!  I hope you like Chapter 8!  

Disclaimer:  I do not own Digimon, Pacman, or Spiderman.

The Dark Sceptre—Chapter 8

By Fenris5000—Angelica

TK's foot finally touched the soft wet dirt at the bottom of the stairs and he let out a sigh of relief.  Everyone had made it down safely, if not slowly.  He and Tai guided Matt under the tree where the rest of the digidestined and digimon were waiting for them.

"We need to get to someplace where we can dry off."  Sora exclaimed, approaching Matt and feeling his forehead.  "Matt's got a high temperature, we should probably let him rest up some."

Matt sneezed and nearly fell over.

Tai chewed on his lip with indecision.  It was true, Matt needed to rest, he was getting worse and worse; but then there was Kari, in the hands of their enemies.  Alone.  Scared.

"I'm fine."  Matt said firmly, straightening.  "We haven't got time to stop now.  We've got the Talismans and we are close to the final temple."

"We haven't figured out how to use the Talismans to defeat the five evil ones yet."  Izzy reminded them in a reasonable voice.  "We know they work on Acolytemon, but how will we know our zipdigivolved digimon can defeat the evil ones?  Or Kari?"

Tai gave the red haired genius a dark look but remained silent.

Matt glanced up at Tai.  "Well we sure aren't going to find out how just sitting around here waiting for the rain to stop.  I say we go.  Things will fall into place on the way.  They always do."

"Unless you fall over first."  Mimi said, still clutching her Talisman and purring with delight every once in a while.  "We should go in at full strength or we'll get demolished."

"Who says we're not at full strength now?"  Matt challenged.  "Do you seriously think that sitting here for two hours let alone two days is actually going to fix me up?  I can answer that with two words:  Fat chance."  He rubbed his temple with a sigh.  "We have to hurry.  They know we have all five Talismans and they know we're coming after them to get Kari back.  You don't suppose they kidnapped her just to get the chance to fight the _mighty_ digidestined, do you?  They need her for something.  Now that they know we're coming, they are going to be moving faster to get their plan into action."

Izzy snapped his fingers.  "They must be trying to figure out a way for Kari to teleport them out of Ash Island."

Tai and Sora were nodding.  "Sounds reasonable."  Tai agreed.  "Okay, I'll probably regret it later, but Matt's right.  We need to go after the five evil ones right away before they get organized.  I doubt they've been sitting on their butts while we were defeating their minions.  We were merely a thorn in their sides.  They were distracting us so they'd have more time to reach full power."  He hit his hand with a fist.

"So let's go."  Gomomon said.  "Lead the way, Joe."

The howling grew fainter as they distanced themselves from the Cliffs of Shadow.  It was slow going as Matt was still shivering and sneezing, but at least the rain was starting to let up.  About forty-five minutes later, they found themselves at the edge of the cobble-stoned courtyard peeking around the corner of the gate.

"Déjà vu."  Matt muttered.

"Bless you."  Mimi smiled brightly, looking up from her Talisman briefly.

"Mimi, you should put that away or one of the five evil guys is going to snatch it right out of your hand."  Tai warned the pink haired girl, rolling his eyes.  He watched as she turned a pout on him.

TK nudged his brother.  "Hey Matt, how come we don't have a Talisman?"

"There are only five evil ones."  Izzy stated matter-of-factly.  "So logically therefore, there are only five Talismans, hence one heart for each evil one."

TK shrugged.  "Well yeah, I get that part, I just meant, how come you guys all got one and Matt and I were left out.  It could just as easily have been Tai and Joe left out.  Why us?  Were we needed at all?"

"Of course you're needed!"  Tai exploded, his face turning red.  "We're a team.  Why without you…"

"Matt may not have gotten hurt."  TK counted on his fingers.

"Well, yeah, there is that."  Tai admitted sheepishly.

"We'd already have Kari back."

Matt frowned.  "TK, would you please stop feeling sorry for yourself.  It isn't in your nature."  He paused and raised an eyebrow.  "_That_ is _my_ department." He sneezed, ending it with a round of coughing.  "I'm sure we both have something to do in this rescue mission."  He gasped, leaning heavily on his younger brother and Tai.

"Do you think we'll make it to the temple this time?"  Sora asked nervously, tucking a loose strand of damp red hair behind her ear.  The rain had just stopped, but they were a long way from being dry.

"We have to."  Tai replied.  "We need to get to some place dry and relatively warm, preferably not shiny or dusty."  He peered around the corner with a frown.  "Come on, it's now or never."

They carefully picked a path through the overgrowth to the temple, watching for any signs of the five evil ones or their servants the Acolytemon.  They reached the temple and slowly mounted the stairs and pushed open the heavy gold door.

Izzy led them in, followed closely by Tentomon.  The computer genius slicked his wet red hair back and tried to squeeze some of the water out of it.  "Well, it isn't too bright in here."  He said jauntily as the rest of the group followed them in.

"Well a little light would be nice."  Tai grumbled as his eyes tried adjusting to the dimness of the temple.  "You think they would at least have a night-light." He moaned.  The door closed shut behind them with an ominous click.

Mimi and Sora reached for a knob at the same time, finding nothing.  "We're locked in!"  They both wailed in stereo.

Izzy shrugged his shoulders.  "Well, we wanted in and we are now in, although somewhat permanently.  So I suggest we start looking for Kari."

"Right."  Tai agreed.  "Now we know what to do, all we need is to be able to see more than one foot in front of our faces."  He reached out a hand and touched the cool wall.

"Maybe Joe packed a flashlight."  Sora suggested hopefully, looking around trying to see something.  All she could see were the shadowed faces of her friends and digimon.

Joe was quiet.

"Well Joe?  Did you bring a flashlight along?"  Gomomon asked up to his digidestined who was always prepared for anything.  Why did they even bother asking?  Of course the digidestined child of reliability would have a flashlight.

Joe stayed silent.

"Joe?  Are you alright?"  TK asked, reaching out to grab his friend's arm.

"Yeah."  Joe sighed.  "I can't believe I forgot to pack a flashlight.  I'm sorry guys.  I don't suppose any of you have taken up a secret smoking habit have you?"

Everyone groaned.

Izzy clicked open his computer and switched it on, bathing the tiny room in a soft light.  "I don't know how long the battery will last, but we can try laptop light for a little while at least until we find something we can use as a torch."

Tai nodded.  "Okay, let's go then, and everyone keep your eyes open for a torch or something.  Izzy, you and Tentomon take the lead."

"Aye, aye, Captain."  Tentomon twittered, lifting off the ground and surging slowly ahead.  The laptop light provided enough light to see about seven feet ahead of them down the narrow corridor.  "There is a hallway going left here."  Tentomon reported, stopping for instructions.

"Well Matt?"  Tai asked, turning to his quiet best friend.

Matt groaned, mumbling something about not feeling very good as his knees gave out.

"Oh great."  Tai fretted with a frustrated sigh as he and TK struggled to get a better grip on Matt.  "Just keep going straight guys.  The fastest path between two points is straight across.  No dilly-dallying."  

"You heard the man, Tentomon, let's go."  Izzy instructed, following his little red insect like digimon down the dim corridor.

"Are you two okay or do you need a break?"  Sora asked the blond in the white fisherman's hat and their big haired leader with concern.  "You guys have been supporting Matt for hours, would you like Mimi and me to take a turn for a little while?"

"I'm fine."  TK said firmly.

Tai nodded.  "Yeah, I am too."

"This is ridiculous."  Mimi said.  "Matt isn't going to be able to fight anyway, why don't we put him down here to rest while we continue.  We'll pick him up on the way back."

Tai bristled.  "We are not leaving him behind.  He would be helpless.  I made some bad decisions before, and I won't repeat them.  We are all sticking together."

Gabumon watched them in the failing light.  "You need Matt or the quest will not be successful.  Yes he is not in the best shape right now, but he's tough.  He'll bounce back."

"Quit talking about me like I'm not here."  Matt grumbled in irritation, giving his friends a dark look.

"Well sorry.  I thought you passed out, okay?"  Tai said lightly.  "Sheesh."

Sora shrugged.  "Well let's go catch up with the others or we won't be able to see our way."

Gatomon and Patamon took the lead.  Gabumon and Biyomon took the rear.  The low ceilinged corridor was just wide enough for Tai, Matt and TK to walk side by side.

The light started to get brighter.  "Oh it looks like we're catching up."  Mimi stated in relief.  "They must have slowed down for us."

"Actually, it looks more like they are walking towards us."  TK replied, shaking his head.  What were they doing?  They didn't have time for dawdling.

"Okay, let's have it."  Tai said as soon as they were in earshot.

Izzy stopped short, his face partially masked in shadows.  "Well, unless you brought a jackhammer, this way was a dead end.  We're back tracking to that side exit we passed a little while ago."

"Are you sure it wasn't just a door?"  Tai inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"We checked, okay?"  Izzy said.  "So turn around and get walking."

Tai turned them.  "Okay, Gabumon and Biyomon, lead the way."

Gabumon let his left paw train along the sidewall of the corridor as he slowly plodded ahead.  It hit something.  He felt closer, it was a long cone shaped stick that he was able to remove easily.

"Gabumon, what are you doing?"  Tai asked as he bumped into the stationary light blue with navy-blue stripes, and yellow--half dog half lizard like digimon.

Gabumon let out a blue blaster and set the torch on fire.  "Now we can conserve Izzy's laptop for emergencies."  He said, starting to walk again.

Izzy sighed with relief.  He had brought some extra charged batteries in case of an emergency, and was glad he did not have to dip that far so soon.  "Way to go Gabumon."

"Here is the entrance."  Biyomon said, turning right and stepping into the next arm of the corridor.  The floor sloped gently downwards as they continued.  There were two more doorways opposite each other.

"Keep going straight."  Tai replied, shivering, as the air seemed to cool off even more.  "How far do you suppose this goes?"  The light of the torch cast creepy shadows on the walls and ceiling.  He squinted ahead out of the range of the torchlight.  What were those shiny red dots?  Was he seeing things?  They blinked out, and then appeared again a ways away.

Biyomon stopped.  "I think we're following an Acolytemon."  She stated slowly.  "Spiral Twister!"

"Blue Blaster!"

The surges of blue and green swirling energy blasted ahead together, rewarding the digidestined and digimon with a squeal and a small explosion.

"Good call."  Tai cheered, letting his free hand trail along the cold smooth corridor wall.  "Okay everyone, keep your eyes open in case there are any more of those little creeps around."

Izzy cleared his throat.  "Um Tai, this may seem kind of knit-picky, but this passageway seems to be impossibly long for us to still be inside the temple."  He paused as everyone stopped walking.  "I think we must have entered some sort of underground complex."

Biyomon squinted ahead.  "I think I see the end of the passageway up ahead."  She said helpfully.

"Okay, let's go check it out."  Tai suggested with a shrug.  "Any ideas Matt?"

Matt sighed.  "It's too early to tell.  There is something here, but it's a weak force still.  There is something in the way.  Sorry."  He smiled apologetically.

"No harm done."  Tai nodded as they followed Sora's pink and blue bird digimon down the dark flickering passageway.

They neared the end of the corridor.  "Oh no."  Gabumon said with frustration clear in his voice.  "Not another dead end."

Joe rubbed his forehead; his eyebrows were drawn together in a frown.  "Oh this is just great.  At the rate we're going, we may or may not find our way to Kari in about a hundred years."

Tai turned around with a scowl.  "Now don't go over-exaggerating Joe.  Let's go back to those other doors we passed."

"I feel like a rat in one of those science experiments."  Mimi cried, wringing her hands nervously.  "What if someone electrifies the floor to see how we react to stimuli?"

Izzy snapped his fingers.  "Of course.  It all makes sense."

TK rolled his eyes.  "Are you going to share your revelations with the rest of us?"  He readjusted his arm under Matt's shoulder and shook his head.  His older brother was still hot and shaky.

Izzy pulled his laptop open and turned it on.  "Let's hope the map program includes building schematics."  He whispered, clicking away.  "Aha, I was right."

"What is it Izzy?"  Tentomon twittered, craning his neck for a better look around his brilliant digidestined's shoulder.

"This temple here at the bottom of the hill is actually an entrance to the passageways leading up to this other temple up here on the tip of the hill."

Sora squeezed in beside the red head and let her eyes scan the iridescent blue screen.  "What are these squiggles?"  She asked, tracing her finger over the shiny purple lines that etched across the map of the temples.

"Simple."  Izzy answered.  "We have to get through this labyrinth to get to the temple."

Mimi's jaw dropped.  "A labyrinth?  I knew it!  We're the rats!  We'll be in here for years.  Someone_ did_ lock the door behind us."  She started breathing faster.  "We're trapped."  Tears started sprinkling down her cheeks.  "We're going to be stuck in here for the rest of our lives."

"Calm down Mimi."  Izzy said in annoyance.  "My laptop shows the way there.  We can't possibly get lost with my map program guiding us."

"Really?"

"Really."  Izzy nodded affirmatively.  "Now come on, let's go back to that last junction.  If we take the left passage, we'll be going up some stairs."

"Stairs."  Matt repeated wearily, retracting his left arm from over Tai's shoulder and rubbing his throbbing head.

TK looked on worriedly.  "Rest time."  He stated, getting ready to ease his brother down into a sitting position.

Matt frowned.  "Not this time TK."  He resisted his younger brother's lead firmly.

"But Matt."

"No TK, this needs to be done."  Tai said hesitantly.  "We have to get out of this maze.  If we stop now, it will just be harder later.  Who knows how long the torch will last and what if there isn't any fresh air coming in?  The longer we stay in here, the worse it could be."

TK hung his head dejectedly.  "This isn't right.  Why do we have to possibly sacrifice Matt's health to rescue Kari?  I don't like having to choose which is more important to me."  He said in a small voice.

"Then it's a good thing this is not your choice to make TK."  Matt said gently.  "It's mine.  Let's go.  Where are the stairs?"

Izzy gulped.  "About fifty paces this way."  He turned and led them off.  Gabumon and Gatomon moved up through the line with the flaming torch and joined the red-haired genius at the front.

As they neared the junction, some scraping noises started.

"Sounds like we have company."  Gatomon said grimly, springing ahead.

"Gatomon, wait!"  Joe called out.

The little white cat digimon with the big blue eyes and enormous yellow glove did not stop, she just hesitated long enough to turn direction at the cross passage.  "Lightening paw!"

Izzy and Gabumon rounded the corner just in time to see her strike the lone spiky black troll who was noisily waiting for their arrival.  It let out a shrill squeal and disintegrated instantly to a small pile of black digidust.

"Well?"  Tai asked from the back of the group.

Sora smiled.  "Two down, a possible million to go?"

Izzy shook his head.  "I highly doubt there are that many Acolytemon on Ash Island Sora."

"Too bad your map program doesn't show where the Acolytemon are hiding."  Tai said to Izzy wistfully.

"Yeah."  TK added.  "Then we could have a nice little game of Pacman."

"What's Pacman, TK?"  Patamon asked hovering near his digidestined's head.

"It's an old arcade and video game from back home."  TK explained.  "It just reminded me of this.  The maze.  And if we could see the Acolytemon on Izzy's laptop running around, well it would be nice if we could put a hungry little guy with a big mouth into Izzy's program that we could make chomp up the Acolytemon."

Izzy shook his head.  "It's a nice idea TK, but unfortunately, we haven't got that ability yet."  He had a calculating look on his face though.

"Well lead on."  Tai ordered, peering ahead into the darkness.  "How long do we follow the stairs for?"  It was always easier to start something if you had a limit that you knew about.

"It looks like there are ten steps up, then there is a landing and another ten steps.  We go up the first ten and then use the door on the landing to enter another passage."  Izzy responded, tracing his finger along the purple trail on the laptop screen.

Sora gazed up.  "Those stairs look kind of steep guys, let's take it slow and careful, okay?"

Tai nodded.  "Right.  Sora and Gabumon go first."

Sora nodded and started up the steps slowly after Gabumon, listening carefully for any signs of Acolytemon.  She could hear Mimi right behind her complaining away about breaking one of her nails.

"Shut up Mimi."  She head Tai warn from behind the pink clad girl.

"That wasn't very nice Tai."  Agumon said from behind his enormous haired digidestined.  "You should say you're sorry."

Tai let out an exaggerated sigh.  "Oh alright.  I'm sorry Mimi."

Gabumon stepped up onto the landing and pointed the torch through the next passageway.  "Looks clear."  He said, walking in.

"Hey!  Could you bring the torch back?  I can't see the stairs!"  Joe yelled fearfully from about halfway up the steps.

Gomomon and Tentomon were right beside him at a standstill.  "It's too bad you don't digivolve into a lightening bug Tentomon."  Gomomon laughed playfully as the light returned.

Gabumon stood at the top of the landing illuminating the entire staircase both ways.  "Sorry about that you guys, I just wanted to made sure the next leg of the maze was safe before anyone went into it."

The three joined the blue striped digimon and ambled after him into the next corridor.  It was well lit; Agumon was just pepper-breathing the last torch on the wall.

"Ah, that's better."  Izzy said, letting his eyes wander over his friends.  They all looked like a bunch of drowned rats who were slowly drying off.

"Which way?"  Tai asked impatiently, looking down the passageway.

Izzy consulted his laptop and pointed straight ahead.  "That way."  He studied the maze on the screen and followed the quickest route to the top temple.  "Then down a flight of six steps, around a corner to the right through a door up three steps, turn left, down four steps…"

"Okay, okay."  Tai said through gritted teeth.  "I get the picture.  We have a long way to go yet."  He ran his fingers through his dishevelled hair in frustration.  "And then we'll crush those five evilmons like bugs."

"Izzy."  Sora began, walking up to him.  "Do you have a digi reference program that might actually say something about these specific Talismans?  Like how to activate them against the evil ones?  Or do our digimon fight them?"

Izzy pushed his hair out of his face and pursed his lips with a frown.  Shrugging, he hit a few keys on his laptop and scrolled down a screen.  "Well, it doesn't mention the Talismans."  He said, looking up.  "I think we can assume the evil ones will be tangible when we meet them for the next fight.  So I'm thinking our digimon should be able to do some damage this time.  The evil ones are useless without Kari, so I think our first move should logically be to separate Kari from the circle."

"Okay."  Tai agreed.  "And how do you suggest we _do_ that?  If she's got that evil sceptre thing, she can pick us off one by one."

Mimi perked up.  "Kari has a soft heart, maybe if Gatomon tried getting through to her, she'd snap out of their control."  She twirled a strand of pink hair around her finger, smiling brightly at all her friends.

"Mimi, you're a genius!"  Tai exploded, a huge grin replacing his undecided expression.  "Of course, that is the perfect plan!"

The pink haired girl's face was nearly the same shade as her hair as she smiled bashfully.

TK rolled his eyes.  Obviously this was the first time in the girl's life someone had called her a genius.

Gabumon handed the torch to Sora and hung back to walk behind TK, Matt and Tai with Agumon.

Izzy's map program worked like a charm.  The kids and their digimon did not hit a single dead end in the next half hour of walking the convoluted passageways.

Sora and Mimi led the group into a small chamber and stopped.

"Izzy."  Tai clucked his tongue in irritation.  He stood before a wall with three doors that appeared identical except each had a gold plate with some mysterious symbol engraved on it.  "What's with the doors?"  That map program didn't say anything about three doors.  They didn't have time to try all three.

Izzy scratched his head, studying the LCD display on his laptop.  "I don't know Tai, I guess one of these doors is a continuation of the passage and the other two are dead ends."  He hypothesized.  "Although detailed fairly well, my map program doesn't say which is which, so I guess we'll just have to try them all."

"Maybe we should split up."  Sora suggested with a shrug.  "That way we'd be a lot faster."

Tai's eyebrows drew together in consternation.  "We could."  He said slowly.  "But what if the evil ones decide to attack while we were separate?  We are in their fortress.  They are probably watching us right now, waiting for us to do the inevitable:  split up, so they can attack while we are weaker.

TK gasped.

"What is it?"  Mimi yelped, moving her head around wildly, her eyes darting everywhere trying to find some monster that had snuck up on them.

The younger blond slipped himself out of Matt's grasp and walked straight to the door on the right and stood directly in front of it.  "This is it."  He said in a hollow voice, not turning.

"TK?"  Matt asked with uncertainty, watching his brother's stony expression and stiff movements.

There was a slight pause.  "Open the door, Matt."

Everyone looked at the taller blond.  Matt's eyes narrowed.  "Excuse me?"  His voice had the slightest tremor.  He hardly recognized his own little brother.

"Open the door."

"Um, TK, I think you are overestimating me here."  Matt said holding his head and blinking rapidly.

TK turned finally with a start.  "How'd I get over here?"

Izzy frowned.  "You walked there TK."

TK frowned back.  "I did?  Just now?"  He had a wondrous expression on his face as he tugged absently at his green shirtsleeve.

Joe removed his glasses and polished them with his cream colored shirt.  "You mean you don't remember?"  His eyes were wide as he put them back on.

"No."  TK said simply, shaking his head slowly.  "What did I say?  What else did I do?"

"You told Matt to open the door."   Sora said helpfully, biting her thumbnail.  "And Matt basically said he didn't know how."

Tai glanced at his droopy best friend.  "Come on Matt, aren't you getting any tingling sensations at all?"

Matt gave Tai a withering glare.  "I'm not Spiderman, okay?  I don't exactly have a users manual telling me when and where to expect these flashes of insight I keep getting."  He slipped out of Tai's support and carefully approached the door before TK.  "I don't know how to open this stupid door."  He replied wearily as he reached out to lean his arm against it.  His hand just barely touched the engraved gold plate.  He sensed a warm glow surround him all of a sudden.  He turned with a start.

"What is going on?"  Tai demanded, clutching his glowing Talisman possessively.  It was gleaming a bright warm orange light and was beaming straight into Matt.  Izzy's green light joined it, then Joe's purple light, Sora's red light, and Mimi's pink light.

"Matt!"  Gabumon said worriedly, taking a decisive step forward.

"I'm okay."  Matt responded, feeling the pulsing light absorb into his skin.  The rainbow colored light blended and the glow shifted to an icy blue hue.

"Oooh, that looks weird."  Mimi said, wrinkling her nose.  "How can all of those clashing colors make blue?"

Izzy shrugged his shoulders, for once speechless.

"This _is_ the Digital World."  Gomomon said.  "Weirder things have happened."  

The door shifted under Matt's hand, and opened with a heavy grinding sound.

"Alright Matt!"  Tai cheered as his friend stepped back in surprise.  "Now we're cooking.  Let's go."

"Wait!"  Sora said grabbing their big-haired leader by the arm and spinning him around before he could take a step into the new chamber.  "We can't just go in there, what if the door closes behind us again?  We'll never push our way out."

Matt walked through the door.  "It's okay guys, nothing bad will happen.  We need to come into this chamber.  The last Talisman is in here."

"I thought we had them all."  Patamon said, hovering near TK's head, a confused expression on his little orange and white face.  "Does that mean there is a sixth evil digimon we have to fight in order to get it?"

Mimi cradled her head in her hands.  "Oh no, not another one.  I don't know how much more of this I can take."  She sobbed.

"Look you guys."  Izzy began.  "Gennai did not say anything about a sixth evil one, so I doubt one even exists."  Now if only he could feel as confident as he sounded.

TK entered the chamber, watching his older brother walking unsupported by anyone; Gabumon was loyally by his side.  What had caused the other's Talismans to flare and beam at Matt?  The tall blond looked like he was back to his old self, no more wobbling.  What did it all mean?

The chamber was about as big as the average master bedroom with a fixture on the ceiling piping in natural light from outside.  The light converged on a carved stone alter in the centre of the room.  TK walked towards it hesitantly.  It almost felt like he was being pulled closer to it; like a nail filing to a magnet.  He did not know if he ought to fight it or go along for the ride.

Matt seemed to sense his brother's reluctance.  "It's okay TK."  He said with a small smile.  "Go ahead and pick it up.  It's yours."

"Now just wait a minute here."  Joe said nervously pulling at his collar as he and Gomomon brought up the rear and joined the other digidestined and their digimon.  "What if it's a trick?  Maybe it's some evil candlestick that will explode if we touch it."

"Or turn us into a pile of frogs."  Gomomon piped up helpfully.  "Though in some cases that might actually be an improvement."

Joe gave the little white digimon with the bright orange hair and purple markings a withering glare.  "Thanks a lot for your comments, Peanut gallery."

Gomomon wore a pleased smile.  "Your welcome."

"It's called a wielding sceptre."  Matt said evenly as TK hesitantly lifted the surprisingly light object off its resting place.  It was about a foot long and platinum in color.  TK's fingers wrapped around the smoothly ridged handle comfortably as he regarded the bejewelled head of the sceptre curiously.  A colorless gem roughly the size of a mandarin orange winked and sparkled out the tip of the stick.  The encasement of the gem was about the size and shape of a medium sized soup can, elegantly ridged with small interspersed vertical rows of tiny pyramids and smooth flat rows.  Each flat strip had a small colored gem; orange, green, purple, red, pink, blue, yellow and lavender.  The encasement tapered off to the base where it met the handle.

Mimi was standing right beside the digidestined keeper of hope.  "Oh, that is sooooo pretty."  She squealed; there were stars in her eyes.

TK frowned and tried shaking the sceptre like a maraca.  "Hmmm.  Yeah.  So how does it work?  What does it do?"

A low grinding noise interrupted.  They all turned with a start to witness the heavy door seal shut.

Sora and Biyomon rushed to it in panic.  "Where is the knob?"  Biyomon asked as Sora tried throwing her weight into it.

Tai grabbed the auburn haired girl by the arm before she could hit the door a second time.  "Just calm down a minute, Sora.  Gee, if I didn't know any better, I'd have said you were claustrophobic or something."  He paused to look over his shoulder at the others.  "Now this chamber is fairly large, we have our digimon with us.  They can get through that ridiculous door."  Under his breath:  "Whoever heard of a door without a doorknob.  Sheesh."

"That isn't necessary."  Matt said, raising his eyebrow.

"Um, Earth to Matt.  We're trapped in this chamber."  Joe reminded his friend gently.  He _did_ have a moderate head injury after all.  "There_ is_ only one door."  His eyes narrowed as he watched the tall blond.  "Hey, is it just me, or do you look…  um…  better?"

Matt nodded.  "Don't worry Joe, you are not hallucinating."  He pointed to the door.  "We have no use for that exit.  The other two passageways are dead ends.  This was the correct passage."

"But we're trapped!"  Sora said, shaking her arm out of Tai's well meaning but forgotten grasp.

Matt smiled.  "No we're not."  With the exception of TK's, the Talismans held by the other digidestined's started glowing again, and the energy was directed straight at Matt, who in turn was absorbing the light.  "TK, you ready to try something new?"  He asked with a smirk.

TK gulped, nodding.

Matt lifted an arm and spread his glowing blue fingers right at TK.

"TK!"  Patamon yelped in concern.

The blue light turned yellow and was absorbed into the younger blond's skin.  "I'm fine Patamon."  He regarded the painless sparkly yellow energy and took a deep breath.  He could feel the power course through his veins and transfer into the sceptre.

"Aim at that wall."  Matt advised him, pointing to the plain stone wall opposite the heavy knobless door.

TK nodded, pointing the sceptre at the target and feeling it fire like a canon.

"Holy moly."  Tai stammered, his jaw nearly hitting the floor.  The wall was crumbling from the impact point, revealing what looked like a spiral staircase leading upwards beyond the grey rubble.

Matt gingerly picked a path through the debris once the dust had settled.  "You guys coming?"  He looked over his shoulder with a cocky smile.  "It's time we showed those evil Mons who they're messing with."

TBC…


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer:  I do not own Digimon, I just like writing about them ^_^

Special thanks to:  miaow227, Rainbow Daydreamer and Miyo86.  Thank you for reviewing chapter 8.  Finally, here is the last chapter of this story.  I hope you all like it!

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 9

By Fenris5000—Angelica

"103, 104, 105…"

"Gomomon, would you please stop counting the stairs?"  Joe begged, wiping a shaky hand across his sweaty brow and fixing his playful little digimon with a hard glare.  "It isn't helping to make this any easier, you know."

Gomomon looked up with wide eyes.  "Sorry about that Joe, I just thought it could be useful to know how many we climbed, just in case we have to come back down them in a hurry."

"Are we nearly there yet?"  Palmon asked, looking at her pink clad digidestined huff and puff with concern.

"I see it?"  Tai said excitedly.  "Just a few more steps guys."

"And then what?"  Izzy asked from the rear.  "We haven't even formulated a plan yet."

Gatomon stopped.  "Sure we have.  We are going in there attacking.  While all you guys keep the evil Mons distracted, I am going to find Kari and snap her out of their control."

"What if she's a clone?"  Sora asked with heavy sarcasm.  

"Oh yeah."  Tai said, looking unsure.  "That was my awesome theory earlier, wasn't it."  He halted as well; just shy of the last three steps up to the door.

"Tai."  TK said, patting his friend on the arm in a condescending manner.  "What would be the point of making a clone of Kari?  They have her held prisoner, all they would need to do is hypnotize her or blackmail her into doing their bidding."

Tai's shoulders slumped.  "Yeah, I guess you're right.  I just don't like the idea that someone has been playing with my baby sister's head."  His hand was clenched in a white-knuckled fist.  "Those monsters are going to pay."  His tone was chilling with the menacing promise.

Agumon straightened.  "You can count on me Tai."

"All of us."  Gabumon corrected, his face set in determination.

"What if the Acolytemon are there too?"  Mimi asked fearfully.

Tai nodded.  "Pity for them."

"Let's go!"  Matt urged, beside his best friend as they mounted those last three steps.  They paused at the top.  "Should we knock first?"

Tai pondered for a second.  "Nah."  They turned the stiff cold darkened knob slowly and heaved the (heavy) door open.

The door opened, revealing a large chamber that had to be a tower top.  The ceiling was at least thirty feet high, with the top half tapering up to a point like a cone and made out of some transparent colorless material like glass, enabling the room to be bathed in bright natural light.  The room was large and round in shape and contained no furnishings at all except for a raised circular shaped platform right in the middle.  The light shone down from the cone like a spotlight, illuminating those who stood in the circle beneath eerily.

"Kari."  Tai whispered as his big chocolate colored eyes rested on his sweet little sister standing in the center of their five evil enemies.

"Let us try one more time."  The deep grating voice of Darknessmon boomed across the room.

"Come on."  TK whispered from behind Agumon and Gabumon.  "Let's go get 'em."

Tai turned, bringing his fingers to his lips.  "Shhh.  I don't think they even know we're here.  Let's wait a minute and try to attack when they are distracted by something else."

"But Tai, that might be too late."  Izzy warned his normally impetuous leader.  The red-haired genius was typing away at his laptop, a concerned frown on his face.  "I think they have been trying to open the porthole off Ash Island."  He said as they watched the five evil ones throw their black light into the fragile little brunette digidestined in the center.  Kari in turn, aimed her golden scepter with the black-jeweled eye above her head at the apex of the cone and a dense black light shot straight up.  Light and energy crackled in the ceiling and a tiny tear seemed to start out of nowhere, growing larger by the second.

"It's opening."  Izzy said in an agitated voice.

Tai nodded.  "Right.  Okay that's our cue.  Let's go!  Agumon digivolve!"

Agumon smiled.  "It's about time.  Agumon zipdigivolve to Dynamogreymon!"

"Gabumon zipdigivolve to Zenithgarurumon!"

"Patamon zipdigivolve to Spiritangemon!"

Matt gave TK a quick pleased smile, glad that their digimon were not left out of the new digivolving level.

"Tentomon zipdigivolve to Kinetickabuterimon!"

"Biyomon zipdigivolve to Cyberbirdramon!"

"Gomomon zipdigivolve to Maximikkakumon!"

"Palmon zipdigivolve to Bionictogemon!"

The room was flooded with the flashing strobe light as the seven digimon evolved to their highest levels without a second thought, amazingly bypassing the bridging levels they had normally had to reach first.

Gatomon led the others out into the open with flashing blue eyes.  "Kari!"  She yelled.

The blank-faced girl jerked slightly and the black light stopped firing from her scepter as she drew her arm down by her side.  The small tear in the air in the ceiling of the chamber drew shut as the sparking energy ceased.  The room was oddly quiet after the hum of the scepter was gone.

"Curse you digidestined."  Darknessmon snarled with venom as he whirled around, his dark cape swirling around his pale body.  "That labyrinth was supposed to keep you occupied for longer than this."  He brought his staff up and smashed it to the floor five times.

Tai spun around, his eyes hard.  "Okay guys, look alive, we all know what happens when he does _that_."

"Acolytemon!"  Mimi shrieked as she flattened herself against the wall in fear.  "Wasn't it bad enough we have to fight all five evil ones without their minions?"

"Chaosdevimon's white fanged mouth stretched into a grim smile.  "Not just minions."  His voice boomed across the room.

Dynamogreymon met with the first wave of Acolytemon to storm into the chamber.  "Incinerator attack!"  The intense white fireball flame erupted from the large orange dinosaur-like digimon's fierce jaws and engulfed the three little spindly yet sinister spiky Acolytemons he aimed at.  An explosion of digidust immediately followed.

"Yay Dynamogreymon!"  Tai cheered.  "Give it up Darknessmon, your minions are no match for our zipdigivolvers.  Just give Kari back to us, and maybe we'll leave you and your cronies alive and in one piece!"

Darknessmon's cold black soulless eyes watched the leader of the digidestined with mirth.  "How very charitable of you.  How very foolish."  He turned back into the circle with a sardonic smile and aimed his obsidian rod at Kari, still standing unmoving and unresponsive in the center.

All five let loose their power into Kari, who aimed her winking scepter over the chain they formed, not at the digidestined, but at the growing number of Acolytemon.

"Alright, she's broken their spell!"  Tai smiled in relief at seeing his little sister attack their unrelenting enemies.

Izzy shook his head as he watched the black energy engulf the Acolytemon.  "Um, I wouldn't count your chickens quite yet, Tai."  The Acolytemon were getting bigger.  Spinier.  Longer fangs on the bottom jaws as well as the tops.

Joe laughed nervously.  "This is all a bad dream.  This is all just a bad dream.  This is all just a really really bad dream."  He gulped, flattening himself beside Mimi; the sweat was rolling down his face.  "How come I'm not waking up?"  He moaned.

"Zenithgarurumon, attack!"  Matt yelled as his eyes watched the unexpected digivolution of the Acolytemon in revulsion.  This was bad.  This was very bad.

Zenithgarurumon, roughly twice the size of Garurumon, leapt off the floor with his powerful hindquarters, sparkling silver and blue stripes in the white light of the chamber.  A long silver and blue horn replaced Gabumon's yellow one on his head making him look like a cross between the mighty snow wolf and the majestic unicorn.  "Arctic cauterizer!"  He met the next group of the new and improved Acolytemon who were charging up, glowing a sickly green color.  His jaws opened, releasing a gush of what appeared to be a silver liquid nitrogen like attack that sprayed onto their enemies, freezing the beasts instantly.

"Nice."  Dynamogreymon complimented as he picked out his next target.

"If you liked that, wait until you see what I can do."  Spiritangemon soared across the chamber with Cyberbirdramon and Kinetickabuterimon at his side.

"Atomicacolytemon attack!"  Darknessmon shouted across the chamber, slamming his staff to the ground in fury.

Cyberbirdramon and Kinetickabuterimon swooped out of formation and zeroed in on their targets.  A blast of blue power hit the angel with the pristine white cloak, cape and wings of gold and silver feathers right in the side, sending him reeling back with force.

"Spiritangemon!"  TK yelled with an anguished voice.

The digimon righted himself and a gold halo appeared in his hand from out of thin air.  "Halo of purity!"  He yelled, throwing the shining ring at the attacking Atomicacolytemon who seemed panicking at the unexpected recovery of the angel digimon.  The ring appeared to expand as it neared the enemy and drop over it's head and down its shoulders, squeezing closed until the big black spiny monster exploded to a pile of digidust and rained uselessly to the scuffed up stone floor.

Mimi peered through the fingers that she was trying to hide behind to see just how badly they were faring against these ghastly Atomicacolytemon.  The only good thing about them was that they were evil digimon of very few words.  There was nothing worse than a chatty villain.  Her eyes fell onto her own digimon.  What was her name now?  Bionictogemon?  The large sparkly metallic green cactus on two legs was about twice the size of Togemon, and instead of a set of boxing gloves, she wore long sparkling gold gloves on not two but six lithe arms.  Each wrist was equipped with a golden bracelet with a raised cylinder on it that was mounted on another ring around her forearms.  On her head, she wore a delicately spiked golden headdress.

"Poison needles attack!"  Bionictogemon yelled in a voice sounding more like Lilymon's than Togemon's.  She aimed her two top hands towards a small group of Atomicacolytemon who were a split second from attacking the digidestined.  A blast of rapid fire needles as sharp as scalpels and as long as brand new pencils projected from her wrist cannons across the chamber and buried themselves into the Atomicacolytemon's jet black skin.  With a pained howl, the huge spiny beasts disintegrated into a puff of midnight digidust.

"Yay Bionictogemon!"  Mimi shrieked, clapping her hands rapidly. 

Maximikkakumon took a hit in the shoulder from behind and stumbled forward a step; he turned and gave the offending glowing red Atomicacolytemon a death glare, raising his long shiny blue trident into the air.  "Tornado tusk!"  He thundered as the green and blue swirling energy harnessed by the huge metallic orange furred digimon was sent forth.  The tornado trapped three of them in its swirling fury.  The twisting Atomicacolytemon burst into smithereens.

"Gatomon!  Now's your chance!"  Tai yelled decisively over the sounds of explosions.  "We'll keep these suckers busy.  Get Kari out of here!"

The little white cat-like digimon with the large blue eyes and formidable yellow claw gloves saluted her big haired leader and leapt towards the circle of evil ones dodging as Cyberbirdramon and her adversary plowed past and into the wall, kamikaze style.  Gatomon didn't stop to see the outcome; her eyes were riveted on her target.  The little digidestined holder of the crest of light.  The rest of the battle was a simple blur of light and explosions.  "I'm coming Kari!"  She cried with renewed energy.

The little mousy-brown haired girl in the navy blue athletic pants with white piping down the sides and yellow pullover hooded sweater turned unresponsive black eyes towards the quickly approaching little white digimon.

"Gatomon, watch out!"  Sora yelled as she watched Kari lift the gold scepter to aim at the little champion level digimon.

Ebony energy blazed from the black eye of the scepter and engulfed the little white cat-digimon in its flame.

"Oh no."  Izzy groaned, seeing a transformation take place.  In place of Gatomon, now stood the statuesque new and improved model of Angewomon.  Gone were the beautiful blond hair and snow white feathers, instead, the creature looked like a ladydevimon on steroids.  Black hair, black feathers, black uniform and helmet.  A cruel smile played on her shiny black lips.

Tai stomped his foot down in fury as he watched the hideously beautiful deviant gracefully lift off the ground with a sweep of her shadowy wings.  _That_ was _NOT_ supposed to happen.  So Kari was this far under the evil ones influence that she would attack her own digimon for them?  He watched the corrupted digimon glide purposefully after Spiritangemon, her claw like hands flexed in a way that looked like she was going straight for the pure white and gold digimon's throat.

"Spiritangemon!"  TK yelled as the new evil digimon was about to strike.

"Darkangewomon!"  Spiritangemon shouted, his voice heavy with sorrow.  "You can fight this.  Your heart is still yours."

Darkangewomon's smirk grew chillier.  "Black heart!"  She yelled as a beam of crackling black power was shot from her eyes.

Spiritangemon ducked and a gold halo was suddenly in his hand.  "I hate to do this to you, my friend."  He paused with a regretful frown then hurled it at her with all his might.  "Halo of purity!"  The gold ring grew as it spun towards Kari's digimon.  Darkangewomon swooped into a rapid descent as the glittering halo maneuvered to follow its target as if it were a heat seeking missile.  The tainted digimon kamikazed into the floor, leveling off at the last instant a second before the halo hit with a sparkling crash, leaving a shower of glittery gold dust in it's wake.

Tai groaned as he watched the battle continue.  Darkangewomon and Spiritangemon were about evenly matched and even though they were worlds apart, they seemed to be able to anticipate one another's attacks exactly.  The rest of their digimon were being kept busy by the unending army of Atomicacolytemon who were practically materializing from out of nowhere.  They were going to have to come up with a strategy pretty quick if they were going to come out of this battle victorious.

"Izzy!"  Tai shouted in a forlorn voice.  "What are we going to do?"

An unnerving peel of mirth echoed across the spacious chamber.  Darknessmon frowned, crossing his arms.  "There is nothing left _for_ you to do but watch as we destroy your precious digimon."  The pasty-skinned fiend drawled in a saccharine tone.  "And then we'll finally finish you infuriating digidestined off; once and for all!"

Matt rolled his eyes.  "Yeah, yeah.  We've heard that one before you Bonehead!"

"Matt!"  Sora shrieked, staring at the blond holder of the crest of friendship anxiously.  It would not be good to provoke the evil ones into forcing Kari to attack them again.

Izzy joined Tai, watching Kinetickabuterimon zing past them and wham into two more Atomicacolytemon and zap their stunned forms with his galvanic zapper.  "Okay, here's the situation in a nutshell Tai.  Our digimon are doing a bang-up job, but even they can't continue indefinitely.  They are going to run out of energy sooner or later."

Matt, TK, Sora, Joe and Mimi joined the two, listening quietly to the red haired genius spell it out.

"The Atomicacolytemon will just keep coming until all our digimon revert back to rookie and then they will finish us off one by one unless we come up with some way to turn the tide of battle.  We need Kari on our side, then the evil ones will be powerless and maybe the Atomicacolytemon will leave.  They always seem to turn tail and run just as soon as their master's show signs of weakness.

Tai scratched his head agitatedly.  "We already know all of this Izzy.  Don't you think we've tried to get Kari back already?  And where has it gotten us?  Now we're fighting Darkangewomon too."  He whispered, stealing a glance back at the circle of evil ones.  "What I don't understand is:  what are they waiting for? Why don't they get Kari to attack us directly?  Why play this game of watching the digimon fight?"

Izzy was clicking away at his laptop.  "Well Tai, my best guess is that opening that portal off Ash Island must have weakened their powers somewhat.  I don't think they have achieved their full potential yet, and need to recharge.  Attacking us directly would probably seriously deplete what reserves they've got, and then they won't have enough power to get that portal open."

"So you are saying we should provoke the evil ones into spending their energy on us to weaken them further so we can prevent them from opening up the digiport?"  Tai asked skeptically.

Joe frowned.  "I am not liking this plan one bit.  Our digimon are too busy battling Atomicacolytemon, so that means you are suggesting that we are provoking this mindless attack?"  He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with quivering fingers.  "Now I am the first one to admit that I am not getting an award for bravery any time soon, but I'm not stupid either.  There's got to be another way."

"Well what about our Talismans?"  Mimi asked, gazing lovingly at the creamy pink colored charm between her fingers.  "They have to be able to help us, otherwise why would we have them?"

Izzy fingered his green Talisman absently.  "They have been a help."  He stated briskly.  "Our digimon have been able to zipdigivolve to the next level."

"And took out a wall."  Joe added, turning abruptly back towards the battle to watch Zenithgarurumon blast another four Atomicacolytemon with his arctic cauterizer.  The black digidust settled and four more of the nightmarish beasts popped up in their place.

Dynamogreymon slammed into the nearby wall after being hit with the rippling blue power-force of five of the Atomicacolytemon working together.  The large spiky orange dinosaur-like digimon in the gold tri-horned helmet lay unmoving, then a soft glow surrounded him and the large form started shrinking.

"No!"  Tai yelled, running to Agumon and grabbing his rookie stage digimon tightly.  Cyberbirdramon and Bionictogemon were instantly at their side to shield them from further attacks.

"Comet blaze!"  The large half-bird, half android with the long red and silver feathers shouted, hurling a massive fireball at the monsters who downed Dynamogreymon.

"Poison needle attack!"  Bionictogemon shouted fiercely, letting loose a barrage of the long needles towards their enemy.

The offending digimon disappeared in a wink.

"Okay guys!"  Tai yelled fiercely, slowly getting to his feet, his talisman in his hand strobing brightly.  "Let's see what these babies can do!  Strength!"

Izzy, Joe, Sora and Mimi held up their Talismans, which also began to shine as brightly as Tai's.

"Wisdom!"

"Endurance!"

"Faith!"

"Harmony!"

Matt fell back a step, covering his eyes as the swirling colored energy swallowed him up.  The power absorbed into his skin and he could feel the warmth pulsing through his whole body.  His eyes opened, and calmly, he turned to TK.  "Ready?"

TK nodded rapidly as he watched the cobalt force erupt from Matt's eyes like icy lasers.  The blue light transformed to sunshine yellow sparkling rays as they approached the younger blond and passed into him, igniting every sense.  The wielding scepter was an extension of himself.

Matt was still surrounded by a pale blue aura.  "TK, aim your scepter at Kari."

"What?"  TK demanded incredulously

"Are you nuts?"  Tai demanded harshly.  "Aim the scepter at the bad guys!"  He roughly pushed his floppy brown hair off his face.

"No!"  Matt responded, turning glittering blue eyes on their leader.  "First we need to free Kari from their control, then we'll have Darkangewomon back."

Joe looked skeptical.  "You want TK to shoot Kari with his scepter?  Did you even see what happened to that wall he destroyed downstairs?  And you want to hit Kari with the same thing?"

The tall blond scowled at their resident worrywart.  "It's a light scepter Joe.  It can't hurt her.  It can't harm us.  It's just a tool.  It leveled the wall because we needed to be here.  It is also a cleansing light."  He watched Kinetickabuterimon sail past, slamming into Maximikkakumon.  The weak golden glow surrounded the two as they dedigivolved back to Tentomon and Gomomon.  "Trust me, and you had better do it fast before the rest of our digimon end up like those three."

Izzy wore a torn expression.  "I'll probably live to regret this.  TK, do what Matt says.  He hasn't been wrong yet."

"But what if it doesn't work?"  TK fretted, feeling the pull of the scepter.  It was charged to the max and ready to go.  "I couldn't live with myself if I hurt her."

Sora watched the fight with growing panic.  They only had four zipdigivolvers left in combat and were terribly out numbered.  "Just do it TK, I'm sure Kari would rather you took the risk than left her the way she is right now!"  The black soulless eyes on the usually pert little girl were tragic.  They had to end this, one way or the other.

TK gulped, letting his eyes rest on their leader.  "Tai, what should I do?"  The bewildered boy was too pure and innocent to be faced with a decision of this caliber alone.

Tai studied his best friend through narrowed eyes.  "Ishida, if anything happens to my sister, I will never forgive you."  He faced TK.  "Do it."

The younger blond wiped the sheen of sweat from his forehead and turned to the circle of villains and held his breath.  _You can do this.  Matt says it will work.  I just have to have faith.  _The five evil ones watched with mocking eyes.  They knew he was terrified.  What would happen if he was to aim at them instead of Kari?  Would they be destroyed?

He felt a warm hand on his forearm and looked up to see Matt gazing at him intently.  "If you aim for the evil ones while they still have Kari as their puppet, they will absorb your light, corrupt it, and feed it into Kari.  She will have enough evil light energy to defeat our digimon, kill us if they wish, and open the digiport to escape their banishment on Ash Island.  Once free, if they stay together, they will have the combined power to destroy the digital world and open digiports to our world and any other world they can find."

TK's mouth went dry.  The wielding scepter in his right hand was vibrating with stored power.

Bionictogemon careened past them and slammed into the wall.  The soft glow surrounded her and she dedigivolved back to her rookie stage.

"Palmon!"  Mimi screeched, rushing to her little digimon friend, tears were glittering in her eyes like diamonds.

"Oh no!"  Izzy choked.  "Look!"  He was pointing at the ring of evil mons who were transferring more of their black energy into Kari.  "They are going to try to open the portal again!"

Matt watched with narrowed eyes.  "Come on TK, we've got to hurry before all our digimon are defeated!"  They only had three left who were combat ready.

"I can't."  TK wailed, lifting his arm up.  "Here, you take it Matt."

Matt shook his head.  "No.  TK, you are the only one who can make it work."  He moved closer to his younger brother and put his arm around his shoulder.  Tai joined them on the other side and shrugged, putting his hand on TK's back supportively.

"You can do it TK, we're here to help."  Joe, Izzy, Sora and Mimi surrounded them in a tight semicircle.

"What if I hurt her?"  TK's uncertain eyes were locked on Kari, who was lifting her scepter towards the ceiling again.  It stopped about halfway.

Izzy's eyes widened in realization.  "She's going to shoot us!  She's not trying to open the portal!"

"Oh no."  Mimi cried out.  "Come on TK, you've got to help her.  If she hits us, then no one will be in a position to help her!"

Tentomon, Gomomon, Agumon and Palmon leapt between them.

"Agumon digivolve to…"

"Gomomon digivolve to…"

"Palmon digivolve to…"

"Tentomon digivolve to…"

Nothing happened.

Cyberbirdramon, Zenithgarurumon and Spriritangemon were still fighting the Atomicacolytemon, blasts of energy volleyed across the room rapidly.  The huge demonic beasts were starting to level off in number.

TK sighed as he watched the black glow emit off the little girl.  It was now or never.  He lifted the scepter and aimed it at his best friend in the whole world.  "Forgive me Kari."  He whispered as tears freely ran from his eyes.  The scepter hummed and the pure yellow light blasted forth just as the hollow blackness crawled towards them.

"No!"  Darknessmon howled in fury.

Tai squinted into the awesome light.  The evil one sounded seriously vexed.  Maybe they had actually done something right.  "Can anybody actually see anything?"  He demanded in frustration.

"How long does this last?"  TK asked.

Matt shrugged.  "Your guess is as good as mine.  The scepter will probably stop when it's ready."  No sooner had he finished his uncertain comment than the light softly faded.

The Atomicacolytemon were engulfed in the same soft yellow light and dedigivolved back to the smaller versions of the beasts and scurried out of the room, as usual, cowering when things started turning out of their favor.

"I think things are starting to look up."  Izzy remarked cautiously.

TK started forward hesitantly.  "Kari?"

"Wait TK."  Sora said, grabbing his arm.  Kari had not said anything yet to clue them in as to her state of mind.  The red haired girl did not want a repeat performance of what had happened earlier to Matt.

One of the flying digimon was glowing a soft lavender color.  The light faded and the black figure of Darkangewomon was replaced by the delicately beautiful blond Angewomon, only she had silver and gold wings like Spiritangemon and a white cat suit that sparkled lavender.

The circle around Kari was broken as the five evil ones staggered around in a stunned stupor.

"TK, Tai!"  Kari yelled excitedly.  The blank black stare was gone from her face, and the jeweled eye of her gold scepter was lavender in color now.

"I am Star-Angewomon."  The new and improved Angewomon stated powerfully.  "You evil ones have done quite enough.  Solar spray!"  She shouted as star-studded energy flew from her fingers towards the five cowering creatures remaining for the side of evil.

Kari leapt off the alter and ran to her brother and friends.  She grabbed TK in a huge hug.  "Oh TK, thank you for saving me."

TK blushed.  "Well…  it wasn't just me.  We all did it."

Star-Angewomon broke her attack as Spiritangemon glided in gently beside her.  "Glad you're back."

"So am I."  Star-Angewomon said, watching the now neutralized evil ones shrink back from the advancing forms of Cyberbirdramon, Zenithgarurumon and the four rookie level digimon who were overpowered only minutes before.  "Come on Spiritangemon, let's show these guys a real banishment."

"As you wish."  Spiritangemon tossed one of his golden halos into the air and Starangewomon aimed her long shimmery-gloved fingers at it.  

"Solar spray!"

The ring grew larger and shone like the sun as it was held suspended in midair, spinning wildly.  Spiritangemon delivered a second halo that amalgamated with the first, spinning the opposite direction, opening a large black hole.

"Empyrean Void!"  The two angel-type zipdigivolved digimon called out in unison.

"No!"  Darknessmon howled forlornly as the dense black light shone through the void and reached out like a giant hand, grabbing Darknessmon, Chaosdevimon, Banefiremon, Sorceryladydevimon and Poisonmegamon all in one tight grasp and draw them inside.  Their final shouts of fear and fury vanished in a wink as the void sealed shut behind them.

Only a pleasant silence was left.  

"Well good riddance to bad rubbish."  Mimi exclaimed, dusting off her hands and grinning from ear to ear.

"Thank goodness for that."  Sora sighed as she watched Cyberbirdramon, Zenithgarurumon, Spiritangemon and Star-Angewomon dedigivolve back to their rookie states and join their beloved digidestined.

Joe was whirling around apprehensively.  "Are you sure we should be relaxing?  What if they come back?  We didn't banish the Acolytemon.  What if they want revenge and just ran out to find some reinforcements?  Maybe they are out there right now planning on ambushing us when we least expect it."  He had a glazed haunted look in his eyes as he kneeled down and picked up his little white digimon with the orange hair and purple markings for comfort.

"Joe, you're squishing me."  Gomomon gasped, struggling to loosen his worrywart digidestined's ferocious death grip.

Izzy was click-clacking away at his laptop rapidly.  "I don't believe we have to worry about being attacked any more Joe."  He said with a satisfied expression.  "See?  The five evil ones have been completely banished to a void-type of prison.  They are absolutely cut off from anything now.  The Acolytemon need a master; they are sort of like a parasite really.  Without an intelligent being lording over them, they scatter and sort of fade away.  Deleted.  No will to live.  No hunger for revenge.  They were just puppet soldiers."  He paused, pushing his red bangs back off his forehead as he accessed another window on his laptop.  "And the interference that surrounded Ash Island earlier is gone now.  The Digiworld knows the five evil ones are gone and have lifted the um…  _bars_ of the prison."

The screen on the laptop grew brighter all of a sudden.  "Ah, speak of the devil, I think we are about to get some company."  The genius stated, scrambling out of the way.

A jumble of assorted body parts and colorful little Digimon came tumbling from the screen.

"Ow!  Davis, get your foot off of my face!"  Yolei shrieked with an outraged voice.

"I will as soon as Cody gets off my stomach!"  Davis gasped, rolling his eyes around crazily.

"I can't move either!"  Cody exclaimed breathlessly.  "I think I'm tangled up with Ken."

"Sure, blame it all on me."  Ken said calmly as he removed his legs from around Cody's legs and got up, extending a hand to help the little Kendo student up.

"We really must find a better way to land when we do that."  Hawkmon said, righting himself as he watched everyone else follow suit.

Davis leapt to his feet.  "Okay, we're here.  Where are the bad guys!  We'll stomp 'em.  Oh, hi Kari.  Well, where are they?"  He whirled around, searching the room frantically.  "Come on ya big spiny creepy thingies!  Come on out and fight me fairly this time!"  His fists were up and he was shadow boxing, minus the shadow…

"Davis."  Kari said smiling.

"Not now Kari."  Davis grunted.  "I am challenging the piggly beasts who captured you."

Tai walked over and cuffed his younger look alike lightly on the head.  "You're too late Junior, we've already defeated all the bad guys.  We're going home now."

"Thanks for showing up though."  Matt snickered.  "As they say:  better late than never, right Tai?"

Davis's eyes bulged.  "All of them?  You guys defeated all the bad guys?  But you couldn't have!  You need Imperialdramon.  He _is_ the coolest DNA digivolver after all."

"Says who?"  TK, Cody, Yolei, Kari, Matt and Tai yelled in unison.

"We didn't need the DNA digivolution."  Sora said smiling.  "Our digimon each underwent a new transformation."

Davis choked.  "What?"

"Zipdigivolving."   Mimi batted her eyelashes at him, smiling sweetly.  "Our Digimon were bigger, stronger and much more fashionable than ever before."  She squealed in delight.

"Bu…  bu…  bu…  but how?"

Tai lifted his Talisman from under his shirt.  "We collected these heart Talismans and they transformed the Digimon, plus gave us the firepower within ourselves to defeat the five Evil Ones and break their spell over Kari."

Kari let go of TK and hugged Matt tightly.  "I'm so sorry I attacked you the other day Matt.  Are you okay?  I thought you had been killed."

"Huh?"  Davis asked, scratching his head in bewilderment.  "Kari almost killed Matt?"

TK nodded.  "Yeah, I still don't know how he got better so fast."

Matt shrugged; one arm was still draped casually around Kari's shoulder.  "As soon as you guys started firing that light from your Talismans at me, I felt stronger.  I guess it must have been a healing light as well.  It healed Kari too."

"So you knew you were attacking Matt?"  Sora asked Kari slowly.

Kari's smile disappeared.  "Actually I was aiming at TK and Tai."  She admitted with a shudder at the memory.  "I remember it all like it was a colorless bad dream.  I saw everything, but I couldn't do anything unless they _made_ me do it.  I couldn't stop it."  She wiped a tear.  "It was the first time they tried me out.  They were thrilled to have a digidestined for their puppet.  They could sense that I am light, so they had me captured by the Acolytemon.  They wanted me to destroy you all on that first meeting."  She continued, shivering.  "If you had been one hour later, I probably would have had the power to kill Matt rather than just injure him."

Matt gulped, paling visibly.

"Well what I would like to know is, why didn't they just come after us again together before we had the chance to collect the Talismans.  They could have attacked us at any time using Kari to kill us."  Joe said in wonder.

Tentomon fluttered beside him in the air.  "They sent the Acolytemon and a holographic image of one of the five Evil Ones to keep us occupied while they spent all that time trying to engineer a way to open the gate to escape Ash Island."

The air beside Yolei and Hawkmon started shimmering, heralding the approach of Gennai.

Tai clapped his hands.  "Yay, you made it."  He smiled as he watched the young version of Gennai solidify before them.  "So how much did Frigimon take you for, hmmm?"

Gennai smirked, a blush staining his cheeks rosily.  "Ahem, that is none of your business, digidestined."  He crossed his arms over his chest.  "Ah, so you have banished the five Evil Ones."  He nodded his head in approval.  "Very good, and the Acolytemon have scattered.  The threat of multiple gates linking dimensions has been thwarted…"

"Huh?"  Davis's jaw dropped.

Gennai blinked.  "Well getting off Ash Island was their goal, but they had more plans in store for the future:  like removing boundaries between all the dimensions and creating one world.  Ultimate chaos; ruled by them." 

"But I thought you said they hated each other."  Matt reminded their mentor with a confused expression.  "How could they just suddenly get along?"

Gennai shrugged.  "Well, when people or digimon are forced into similar unfavorable situations, common sense leads one to form a solution that best suits the problem.  In all probability, once they had succeeded in their plans, they probably would have killed each other off."

"I'm just glad it's all over now."  TK said with relief, getting a nod in agreement from almost everybody present.

"It can't be over."  Davis pouted, stomping his foot down.  "Veemon hasn't zipdigivolved to his next level yet."

Gennai rolled his eyes.  "And he won't be either, Davis.  Zipdigivolving is not something your digimon is ever going to need to do.  The Talismans are actually going to be returned to me for safe keeping, in case the five Evil Ones ever return.

"They won't."  TK said firmly.

"But Veemon just has to zipdigivolve."  Davis said, his eyes bugging out on the verge of panic.  "If he doesn't, then…  then Kari won't be my girlfriend anymore…"

Tai pulled the elastic band of Davis's goggles and listened for the satisfying THWAP as it snapped back.

"Ow!  What was that for?"

"Davis, I was never your girlfriend."  Kari replied sweetly, patting his shoulder.

"Huh, never?"  Davis asked, trying for the puppy-dog-eyes look he had seen some kid use on TV who managed to get his way always.

"Never."  Kari and TK said in unison, handing Gennai their scepters as the others handed their Talismans over.

Mimi frowned.  "But what about Matt?  He had some sort of power, but he didn't have a Talisman.  Before we have to go home, I want to know everything."

"Yeah."  Sora agreed nodding her head.  "Gabumon even digivolved to Weregarurumon after Matt had gotten hurt."

Gennai scratched his head.  "Really?  Hey that's great!  So I guess you digidestined are finally beginning to digivolve yourselves."

"I…  I…  I…  digivolved?"  Matt stammered, wide eyed.

Gabumon hugged his digidestined around the legs with his biggest grin yet.  "Oh Matt, you're one of us now!  I am so happy!"

"I think I need to sit down…"

"Matt digivolved?"  Tai and Davis demanded loudly at the same time.  "I wanted to be first!"  They glared at each other, and then at Matt, who just gave them a sickly smile back.

Gennai held up a warning hand.  "Never force a digivolve, remember?  This is the digital world; sometimes you need to adapt to survive.  Matt may have been the first of you digidestined to wield some natural power, but I'm sure that with a little time, it could happen to the rest of you as well.

"This is so cool!"  Yolei giggled.  "We could all digivolve!"

Joe rubbed his head.  "Wow.  Well on that cheery note, I hate to be the stick in the mud around here, but we should probably be getting back home before we're missed too badly.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I need a little nap."

"Joe's right."  TK nodded, smothering a yawn.

Mimi gasped.  "Oh no!  What day is it?"

"Wednesday."  Izzy stated, closing the digiport program on his little pineapple laptop.  "Why?"  He shut the lid.

She was counting on her fingers.  "I'm flying back to America tomorrow."  She said with a relieved sigh.  "I almost forgot.  But we have to get back quickly if I'm going to finish my shopping!"

Sora checked her watch.  "I've got a tennis match in an hour."

"I'm late for band practice."  Matt moaned.

"Aaaaaah!"  Tai and Davis shrieked in perfect harmony.  "Soccer practice!"

Joe was hyperventilating.  "Exam…  must study."

"Computer club."  Izzy jerked to his feet.

"Kendo lessons."  Cody muttered.

"Chess club."  Ken sighed.

"Photo club."  Kari tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear.

"Nap time."  TK smothered another yawn.

Gennai pointed behind them rolling his eyes.  "Okay, you have all established that you have better things to do right now than shoot the breeze with me.  Your carriage awaits."  A television set materialized from out of a digital oblivion, ready to transport them home.

"You have to leave?"  Biyomon asked sadly, flapping her pink wings to lift off the ground and flutter in the air beside Sora.

"Yeah Biyomon, but we'll be back real soon."  Sora smiled warmly at her rookie stage digimon, then turned to watch as TK aimed his D3 device at the TV.

"Digiport open!"  The screen lit up with a pleasant hum.  "Thank goodness."  TK said, glad that it finally worked.

The digidestined, Hawkmon, Armadillomon, Veemon, Wormmon, Gatomon and Patamon stepped into the bright light, looking back and waving to those staying behind.

"Well here we go again."  Hawkmon lamented.

"It's not so bad."  Wormmon said in his soft nasal voice.  "At least we're all together."

"I still can't believe you digivolved and I didn't, Matt."  Tai punched his best friend in the arm.

"Hey, what can I say?  When you've got it, you've got it.  Now don't be punching me in the arm anymore Tai, or I'll digivolve to my ultimate level and cream you."  Matt responded as they faded into the TV…

The End.


End file.
